Doomsday
by someblessedmonster
Summary: Dead Zone xover The sequel to Real and Powerless: Buffy, Johnny Smith and Angel have changed the world, but now the world is changing to something far worse. Can they stop the events they have set in motion?
1. The End

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**1: The End**

Buffy Anne Summers sat in the back of the taxicab alone, staring blankly out the window as the blurry scenery passed by. Sunlight poured upon an expression of peace on her face. The calm was due to the fact that her life had turned out very differently than she had ever imagined. She lived her life according to her choice.

Once upon a time, she was the outcome of a choice. A grand choice by the Powers that Be, who dictate and try to make the world go 'round. She was the Slayer. The Chosen One. The one girl in all the world to blah blah blah the vampires and the blah and the whatever about world peace. The point was that Buffy used to have to face the evil in the world because of someone else's choice until one day she made a choice to share her power with all the potential Slayers in the world – a choice that changed the world dramatically (and changed the landscape of her hometown into a gaping crater).

It was near the time of that same choice that she chose not to be with her first love. It was made clear that now wasn't the time. She had a lot of discovering to do within herself before she could commit to a relationship with him. It had something to do with cookie dough, Buffy remembered. But she remembered very clearly that it was the right decision.

It was about a year later when she first started having the dreams. The dreams of the man that would become her other true love. They were pleasant nighttime meetings to escape the pressures of the new world she created and the people who couldn't quite understand. Everyone looked to her for the answer. They looked for her to save them. Buffy had been so lost, she found solace in her dreams. Until the night she had a dream of snow-covered Sunnydale and the first kiss with her wise, comforting, understanding – not to mention, cute – new friend. With the first kiss, came the first vision of Armageddon. But not like the ones she foiled in the past. This one was of fire and greed, brought about by the foolish actions of men, and most terrifyingly – it was _real_. And it was coming.

So her next choice was to find the man in her dreams, the only key to stopping Armageddon. She found him. And perhaps, not by her choice, she fell deeply in love with him. Johnny Smith, the famed psychic who was also chosen by fate to be without a normal life, fell in love with her just as quickly and in the same fashion – through their dreams, or visions, of each other in which Johnny had always taken the place of Buffy's first love, Angel.

Through these visions of Buffy's past, he met her, he learned her life, he watched her heartaches, and he knew he had to be with her. Unfortunately, another storm had come about from their meeting. The greedy congressmen behind the Armageddon that Buffy and Johnny had seen had teamed up with a mysterious man from an evil sect. This man, Malcolm Janus, had his own plans for the end of the world. Greg Stillson was just a pawn. Janus and his Illuminati had carefully constructed a plan to bring forth the God of Vampires, Utarefson, who would bring about the end of the world. Johnny and Buffy foiled this plan, but not without sacrifice.

Buffy made another choice that night when she faced the Demon to save Johnny, who was being possessed and controlled by Utarefson and about to kill Stillson in cold blood. She chose to give Utarefson the power inside of her that made her the Slayer of all time. She chose a normal, mortal life to free the man she loved.

It was a choice she had to live with, being powerless. Or so she thought.

For Johnny and Buffy realized not long after that the Powers that Be, in their infinite wisdom, had swayed the balance in their favor. The power that was taken from Buffy was given to Johnny, thus creating the first male Slayer. In return, Johnny's visions were permanently given to Buffy, giving them a greater advantage in the ongoing fight to stop Stillson's Armageddon, but also giving Buffy a wave of pain and responsibility that came with the visions.

Since then, they had to work together to save the world. One choice at a time.

Until last night.

Buffy glanced over at the dashboard radio and the station that the cabbie had been listening to. It had been breaking news 24/7 in Los Angeles since the night before. The female news reporter's voice came over the radio, "A Los Angeles coroner has finally determined that the death of Vice President Greg Stillson was an apparent suicide. The young vice president from Maine who was suspected to run for the Presidency next election leapt to his death from the roof of his hotel room yesterday morning."

Buffy looked down past her golden curls at her evening glove-covered hands. She had felt silly when she first began to wear them, knowing she would get X-Men references from Xander about it. But it made sense. With them covered, she wouldn't really have to touch anything. She wouldn't have a thousand visions – happy, sad, weird, horrifying and maddening – running through her head all the time.

She put her thumb under the evening glove covering her left forearm. With a smile of satisfaction, she pulled it off slowly, revealing each of her dainty fingers. She stared down at the single diamond ring on her left hand with a warm smile. The memory of last night filled her mind.

* * *

The night wind whipped across Johnny Smith's face. His piercing blue eyes gazed across the rooftop of the Le Parke Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles as he stared at his adversary. Vice President Greg Stillson stared back at Johnny Smith lividly. This was the man that was seconds away from destroying his entire career. But the things the vice president had sacrificed – the things he'd done… He would not let Johnny Smith take this away from him.

"It's over, Stillson," Johnny announced. "You've failed."

"If you think I'm going to give up that easily," Stillson sneered, "you're out of your damn mind."

"Walk away, Greg," John declared calmly. He stood in her black button-up shirt and slacks with a black blazer over the outfit. He fit in perfectly in the gala downstairs. "You don't understand what you're into. You're a pawn in Janus' game."

"Don't feed me this again!" Greg Stillson shouted with offense.

"You don't think that all this power came with a price?" Johnny tried to reason for the final time. "Stand down." Greg Stillson glanced around at the empty rooftop and decided that this was the place where he would end it all. He was going to take care of Johnny Smith for the last time.

"The last time you and I had a scuffle," Greg declared, "I remember it being significantly one-sided." Johnny glanced down with a hint of remorse. He was referring to the time when he was possessed by Utarefson and he nearly beat Greg Stillson to death, fueled by demonic power and rage. "I don't think that's the way this is going to turn out," Stillson shouted.

"It's not like that now," Johnny warned. "But it's close."

"So it's true?" Stillson asked with a half-smile. "_You're_ the Slayer now?"

Nearby, Buffy was in a brown, glittering evening gown and black evening gloves covering her forearms, crouched down behind an air vent. She overheard the shouting of Johnny and Stillson over the whipping of the wind. She knew that Malcolm Janus will have noticed Stillson's absence by now and was probably running his way up the stairs since the elevators had been shut down by Bruce and Walt.

Was that enough time?

Buffy hid in silence, watching carefully as she made sure she didn't give away her position to either of the men, since Johnny made her promise to stay downstairs. Just because she was the sidekick now doesn't mean there's any way in hell she was going to miss the big finale. Buffy removed one of the gloves and placed her hand on the cold ground.

"I mean it," Johnny declared simply. "Stand down."

"Don't think so," Greg answered angrily. "I call your bluff." He rushed at Johnny in a flash and swung a vicious right hook. Johnny blocked it simply and quickly, and blocked the next punch even faster. Stillson backhanded Johnny swiftly, as a result of the 'special training' from Malcolm Janus. The punch meant nothing to Johnny, as it rolled off of his cheek like water. Johnny spun around and kicked the vice president backwards and sent him rolling across the cement floor.

Stillson would not let Johnny have the best of him. He was back on his feet and engaging in a hopeless battle with his adversary who had gained supernatural strength and agility. Buffy watched intently and noted several times that Johnny had the opportunity to kill him. However, she noticed that Johnny despised every kick and hated every punch and he threw. He wasn't ready to murder him, no matter how much he deserved it. It was the difference between Johnny the Vampire Slayer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy watched as Johnny lifted Greg Stillson in the night air and tossed him easily across the roof of the building. His body smashed through a concrete guarder protecting another air vent. Greg's body rolled across the floor, coming to a stop near the edge of the roof, as pieces of concrete stone scattered across the roof. A little more of a throw and Stillson would've been flapping his wings down to the street below. It was another choice that Johnny was letting Stillson have.

"I've been waiting for this a long time," Johnny said, not without his own sense of satisfaction in pounding Stillson again. "This is the end for you." Stillson stared up at Johnny, reeling from his pain. "You've got one last chance," Johnny declared, "and it doesn't have to end like this." Buffy watched as Stillson pushed himself off of the ground, not ten feet away from where Buffy was hiding, and came to a stand.

Stillson sighed tiredly and gazed at Johnny slyly with one hand placed on his aching ribs inside his jacket. "Yes, it does," Stillson answered. He yanked a pistol from the inside of his jacket and pointed it at Johnny, pulling back the trigger. With a crack, a bullet pieced Johnny in the chest. He stepped back in shock and was stung with a second bullet in the heart.

Buffy screamed in horror as Johnny sunk down to his knees, blankness in his eyes.

"You've got one last chance," Johnny declared, "and it doesn't have to end like this."

Buffy glanced around to find that she had experienced a vision of the very immediate future. She saw Stillson's hand reach into his jacket as she leapt up from her position. "No!" she screamed.

Johnny glanced over at Buffy, suddenly in distress. "Get out of here!" he demanded, her safety becoming priority. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him down to the ground just as Stillson pulled out his weapon and fired in Johnny's direction. The bullet barely missed as the couple crashed to the ground.

They scrambled to their feet as Johnny ordered, "Run!" Johnny dived behind another air shaft as Buffy followed directions – _for once_ – but it was too late. Stillson sprang up from behind Buffy and grabbed her, holding the gun to her head.

"No," he grinned. "Stay."

Johnny was nowhere in sight, but Stillson knew that he was holding the most important thing in his life at the end of a gun. Behind the air shaft, Johnny could do nothing but feel his heart race with terror.

"Let her go, Stillson," Johnny called out. "This is between you and me."

"No, it's not," Stillson answered as he stared into the empty space around the roof. "She's very much apart of this. She's the reason you just won't go away."

"I may not be the Slayer anymore," Buffy warned as Greg pinched her arm coldly, "but I'm not helpless."

She felt the hot barrel of the gun against her temple, still warm from the last bullet. "Now you are," Greg smiled. He enjoyed too much the suffering of those that caused him trouble. Buffy swallowed hard, but kept a stone-cold expression. "Doesn't it scare you?" he asked her.

"You _never_ scared me," Buffy replied.

"Johnny's scared," he whispered back through a grin. His hazel eyes searched across the roof for Johnny to appear. The new Slayer, broken into a sweat, waited vulnerably as he struggled to devise a plan. There wasn't any question that Stillson would kill her. The question was how long he was willing to let Johnny watch.

"Don't come out!" Buffy yelled. Stillson pinched her arm hard and held the barrel more firmly to her head.

"Shut up!" he hissed. "Come out, Johnny. You don't want her to die, do you? We wouldn't want to mess up this pretty little head before she gets that wedding veil on it, would we?" Stillson was desperate for Johnny to come out of hiding. It didn't matter what new powers he had. All it takes to kill a Slayer is a single bullet.

He whispered in Buffy's ear, "Now if Johnny dies, does that mean another Slayer is called? Or is his death just as pointless as it would've been had he stayed the same?"

Johnny squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. He pushed himself off of the ground and strolled out into the open, staring Stillson down. Greg gazed at him with a small smile twisting his face; the gun was now at his side. "Good," he declared calmly. "I wanted you to see this up close and personal."

Johnny saw him lift the weight of the gun and instantly he was thrust into action. He glanced down at one of the concrete pieces on the ground and lifted his foot kicking it into the air in Stillson's direction. Buffy lowered her head as the concrete rock, at least four pounds in weight, smashed into Greg Stillson's forehead.

He saw a bright red light and then blackness as his body fell backwards. His hand released the weight of the gun as Buffy fell forwards to the ground and Stillson's body toppled backwards over the railing at the edge of the building. Johnny raced over to Buffy, helping her to her feet, but she was just as concerned as he to gaze over the edge of the roof.

Both of them came to the railing and stared down the skyscraping tower to see Greg Stillson falling down to the street below. There was no sinking scream as Stillson's body smashed into a parked limousine with the force of a thousand pounds, crushing the hood. Both of them, stunned into silence, watched as the gathering crowds began to panic around the street.

Buffy's hand clenched around the iron railing as her green eyes squeezed shut.

_In her mind, a vision of fire receding across Washington, D.C. crashed inside her skull. Flames unfolded revealing the Capitol building intact and untouched._

Buffy came out of the vision and glanced up at Johnny immediately, tears of joy and relief welling in her eyes. It was a for which they had been waiting a long time. The vision of Armageddon undoing itself. They had saved the world.

Johnny's stunned expression melted with this revelation as Buffy sank into his arms. Johnny heard the scrape of a shoe behind him. The two of them turned around to see Malcolm Janus standing by the exit to the stairs. His long, dark face was horrified and stunned. All of his planning was once again foiled. He gazed at Johnny and Buffy in horror.

They stared back at him in silence. Janus gazed at the edge of the roof, and stared back up at them, his shocked face filling with anger. "You will regret this night," Malcolm warned coldly. He turned on his heel and bolted through the door like a madman, rushing down the stairs out of sight.

Johnny continued to stand strong, wrapping his arms around Buffy. "It's okay," his warm voice said with a bit of a laugh. He closed his eyes as the two of them embraced each other as the cold, night wind surrounded them. "It's over," Johnny continued saying as tears rolled down Buffy's face. "Everything's going to be okay…"

* * *

Buffy sat in the taxicab reminiscing on that night. She stared down at her engagement ring, and then used it to take off her other glove. She dropped both gloves into her lap, and with them, dropping the grim future which was no longer a reality. It was the end of a dark period and the beginning of a new era.

The future had not yet been written. She had hope for what it would be like, and what the outcome of their choices would be.

_Everything is going to be okay_, Buffy thought as she smiled, staring down at her ring. She let her bare hands fall into her lap. Her warm smile slowly faded. Buffy glanced up through the windshield immediately, just long enough to see the cab driver panic and the blinding white headlights of a truck.


	2. The Third Law

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**2: The Third Law**

Two wine glasses clanked, causing the most beautiful ringing sound throughout the room. Bruce was leaned over on his barstool, resting his weight on the airport bar of LAX. He delicately held the glass of wine in his fingers as he gazed down at the dark red liquid. "You know what that sound was?" he slurred with a wide grin. "That was the sound of physics."

Johnny gazed at him from beneath the rim of his glass as he took a sip of wine. "What are you talking about, man?" he said with a smile.

"My glass touching your glass made a reaction," Bruce grinned as he tried to explain seriously. "For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction…"

"I know, man," Johnny sighed, nodding his head as he took another drink, "we saw _Final Destination_ on TV the other night…"

"No, no, I'm talking about Newton's laws here," Bruce said almost with a giggle. "This is serious, can… can you be serious for a second?"

"Okay," Johnny nodded, with a smile, "you've had enough."

"No, I can't get enough," Bruce declared with a grin. "We're toasting victory here! A war won!" Bruce took a 7-11 sized big gulp from his wine glass, downing it all. He pulled the glass away from his mouth. "You know what we're gonna do when we get back home?" Bruce declared in delight. "We're gonna throw a party. And invite everyone we know. And some people we don't know."

"No one knows that we saved the world except you, me, Buffy, Walt and Sarah," Johnny explained. "Why would anyone else celebrate?"

"Let's tell them," Bruce blurted. He looked around at the other patrons of the bar as he pointed at himself and John. "Hey! We're heroes! We just stopped a nuclear catastrophe!"

Johnny glanced around, amused but still slightly alarmed, "Okay, man, quiet down." His phone began to ring. "You're gonna scare everyone away." He reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and retrieved his cell phone. He was now used to not knowing who was on the other end, so he answered as anyone would, "Hello?"

"John," a familiar voice responded, "it's Walt." The former Sheriff of Penobscot County, Maine, had a dark tone in his voice, one very different from his joyous one the night before.

"What is it, Walt?" Johnny asked, now suddenly concerned.

"I'm at the hospital," Walt Bannerman declared. "It's Buffy."

* * *

Johnny, Walt and Bruce stood in a semi-circle with the doctor, still in his scrubs, who performed the operations on Buffy as they stood outside of the operating room in Tyler Memorial Hospital.

"The damage is extensive," the surgeon declared. "The crash was bad. I'm surprised she survived it." Johnny stared straight forward at the doctor with his arms half crossed and a loose fist covering his mouth. He was in a single word – emotionless. "There was a great deal of internal bleeding," he explained. "We were able to take care of most of it—"

"Most of it?" Walt repeated with concern. "Wait a minute, you're saying that she's still… bleeding?"

"As I said," the doctor restated, "the damage is very extensive."

"Okay, so what are we looking at," Bruce asked, "long term?"

The surgeon stared at him quietly with an apprehensive expression. "I think we should sit down," he offered.

"No," Johnny declared firmly, breaking his silence for the first time in a while. He softened his tone a bit, "I'm sorry, doctor, but… I just… I don't want to sit." He stared at the doctor, bracing himself for an answer.

The doctor stared back at him with pity. "There won't be a long term," he declared flatly. "We've found something of a shadow in the left hemisphere of the cerebellum. Now at this stage, it's unclear exactly where it came from, it doesn't seem to be a tumor, but it's probably a result of the bleeding the skull…"

The doctor kept speaking. Johnny was sure of it. But he had no clue as to what he was saying. It didn't matter anyway. Johnny burned a hole into the wall as his eyes filled with bitter darkness.

Newton's Third Law. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Johnny and Buffy had finally stopped Armageddon. Now the Powers, or whatever was responsible, took their price for that exchange.

Their future. His future.

* * *

Later on that morning, Walt walked down the hallway of the hospital to the ICU waiting room with two cups of strong coffee in his hands. He entered the mauve and cream colored waiting room, something that looked like old Pepto Bismol, and handed one of the cups to Bruce. He took the coffee and remained in his slumped position in the waiting room chair with a depressed expression upon his face. 

"Where's John?" he asked as he took a sip.

"He's still in the room with Buffy," Walt explained. "I guess because of his celebrity the nurses are nice enough to let him stay as long as he wants."

"Or maybe it's because they know the truth," Bruce grimly declared. "They haven't got much time left."

Walt was silent as he stared down at the ground. Bruce reached into his shirt and ran his fingers over the scar near his heart. "I hate hospitals," Bruce declared. "I used to not really care. Hell, I worked in one. I didn't understand what the big deal was."

The scar was from a knife wound sustained during a physical encounter with the Illuminati almost a year ago. Back then, they were so far from solving the great mystery of how to save the world. Now it seems that after foiling one disaster, another appears and now there's nothing anyone can do about it.

"It makes a difference," Walt explained as he took a sip of his coffee, "seeing people you care about being in the hospital. And being in there yourself."

"Was it worth it?" Bruce asked as he looked over at Walt. "Was it worth losing your job to join the good fight?"

Walt stared down at the black sea in his cup. "The right answer would be to say 'yes,'" he explained. "But when is anything that simple?"

* * *

Johnny sat in a chair at Buffy's bedside, encased in a glass room of beeping and tubes and flashing lights. Around them, there were boxes and computer screens that didn't mean anything. His hands were wrapped firmly around hers as his head was buried down into the sheets. He was far too lost and heartbroken to continue praying.

Every time her chest rose, he felt it, taken in how precious it was. He knew that in just a short while, it would rise and fall for the final time. He lifted his head and stared at her pale face, covered in bruises and cuts, and the golden curls that framed it. He stared closely at her closed eyes, imaging that they would open for one more time.

Now he knew very well how painful it was to watch someone in a coma. Someone that he loved very dearly. The doctors stated very plainly with full belief that her eyes would never open again. But he couldn't help but wait. He couldn't help the painful curse of hope that Buffy had planted in his heart.

A blurry, slippery memory ran through his mind. Sunlight and clean sheets. Buffy stared at him and declared simply, "_Life always finds a way_."

As quickly as it came, it was gone. For the first time, he wished dearly that he still had his visions so that he could experience the past with perfect clarity. He could escape there and remember like a photograph what it was like to see her smile.

A gasp of air filled her lungs and snapped Johnny out of his remorseful gaze. He stared at her face, stunned, as she began to stir in her sleep. Her eyes, sunken in, opened wide and sparkled with all the brightness left in her body. Her green eyes fluttered as they searched around the room until they found Johnny's face.

They gazed at each other for mere moments. Again, he made the mistake of staring into her eyes – the same mistake that caused him to fall in love with her. She whispered softly with dry, cracked lips and a sound barely reached his ears.

"You're welcome," she breathlessly said. Her words fell away as her eyes slowly closed. An obtrusive sound blared out from the machines signaling the stopping of her heart. It was the loudest sound in the world. Johnny stared at her blankly, his heart shattering.

A flood of nurses rushed into the room, followed by the doctors nearby. They began their fight to no avail. Johnny came to a stand and backed away from the hospital bed, still stunned from the sting of his misery.

Buffy Summers was dead.


	3. To Live and Die in LA

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**3: To Live and Die in L.A.**

"We take what we can get, Champ," Cordelia declared as she rested her hand on Angel's chin. The two of them stared at each other in silence as Angel struggled to make her stay. "And we do our best with it." Her eyes began to brim with tears. "I'll be seeing you," she said with a pained smile as she turned away from Angel and walked towards the door of his office in Wolfram & Hart.

Cordelia paused in the doorway and turned around impulsively. "Oh, what the hell, one for the road?" she declared. She grabbed Angel and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

Johnny walked around from behind Angel's desk and stared at the two of them embracing. He recognized them both, but gazed around in confusion as to where he was. He glanced down at the desk calendar to see that they were two years in the past. He glanced back at Angel and Cordelia.

_Wow, they're, uh, still going at it_, Johnny noted, then glanced away, feeling a bit awkward.

The phone sitting on Angel's desk began to ring blatantly. The two of them continued to kiss each other through each of the annoying rings. Cordelia pulled back from Angel's lips, staring at him lovingly.

"Uh," Angel declared, waiting to continue what he was doing, "you know, um, I… don't have to get that…"

Cordelia smiled through tears, staring at him knowingly. "_That_… you have to get." Hesitantly, Angel pulled away with a finger in the air, putting her on hold. He turned his back and walked towards the phone as Cordelia called out, "Oh… and you're welcome." She smiled warmly at Angel as he picked up the phone.

Johnny watched the scene strangely, which became even stranger as he noticed that Cordelia was now staring at him. He went from observer to character as Angel turned from the phone and stared back at Johnny as well. Johnny looked back and forth between Angel and Cordelia with suspicion. Johnny looked in between them to see Buffy, standing with her back turned towards him and staring out the window.

"Buffy?" Johnny called breathlessly. He stared at her blonde waves, mystified by her presence, wanting to rush up to her. Johnny looked beyond Buffy's small frame out the giant bay window at Los Angeles outside, or what was left of it. The city burned in flames, screams and blood outside while the rest of them watched anxiously.

Buffy slowly turned and faced Johnny with a solemn expression as the apocalypse raged on behind her. Johnny stared at her thin lips as they formed words which had no sound. They were barely whispers against the roar of the fire.

* * *

Johnny sat up in his hotel room bed, his chest heaving with fear. Sweat poured from his forehead as he sat up on top of his bed, still in the clothes he wore in the hospital. He gazed around minutes from sunrise, searching for Buffy's presence. But it would not be found. It was only a dream.

Johnny glanced over towards the window to find Los Angeles not in flames, and the sky lightening in the distance. In the corner, near the window he saw a tall figure sitting in a chair quietly in the dark. Johnny instantly recognized the dark features on the pale face of the solemn man.

"Angel," Johnny declared with an unsurprised tone. Angel's dark eyes lifted off of the ground and found the man engaged to the love of his life. It was the first time they had met in over a year since they teamed up to battle Utarefson.

Johnny glanced around to see that he was alone, as he was most of his vampiric life. When he was a psychic, he learned much about the vampire with a soul sitting in front of him by taking his form in his visions of Buffy. In a way, Angel helped lead Johnny to Buffy, although Angel was unaware of John's existence and was probably against him falling in love with Buffy.

Johnny stared at Angel in silence, both of them dreary and miserable. "I take it you know," John stated simply. Angel glanced back to the dark city skyline.

"I lurk," Angel affirmed, with a significant tone of sadness.

Johnny's head dropped slowly as he stared down at the hotel carpet. He squeezed his eyes shut as the sting of the memories which happened yesterday night melted through his mind. It all felt like an eerie dream, the current meeting between Angel and John being the strangest highlight.

It was already understood by both that there was no competition here. Just loss. One of the most recent connections that the two of them shared.

"I just came back from the morgue," Angel added with a quiet voice. He explained hesitantly, "I had to see for myself."

"A shadow on her brain," Johnny repeated with disbelief. He changed his demeanor as if to offer valuable information to eager ears. "I… don't think they know where it came from yet. The doctor said…" The words fell away. What did it matter what anyone said or why?

"Her mother," Angel began, "Joyce… Buffy's mother, she… She had something similar before she died." Silence again took over the room. Johnny backed up to the side of the bed and lowered himself down, sitting as he gazed at the floor. Angel remained seated in the chair as he rested his chin on his hand in contemplation.

"I had a dream," John said to the carpet. "She said something, but…" His words again faded away as his brow furrowed. He stared down with an expression of loss and confusion. "Did it… mean something, or…?"

Angel looked up at him, then glanced away towards the windows. "Dreams are like prophecies," Angel answered. "Sometimes they mean something, sometimes they don't. They're lies fueled by your imagination, mostly. And then there are those other times… they come true. Just not how you think."

It was then Johnny noticed the light spilling onto the carpet. He looked up to see that the sun was rising over the skyline of Los Angeles and orange sunlight was filling the room. Angel sat still in silence as the light formed on his back and consumed him. The two of them viewed each other clearly as they sat together in the sun as normally as old friends.

But this was different and Johnny knew was it meant immediately. What went unmentioned was the clear fact that Angel was human for the first time in over 200 years.

What went unnoticed was the ground that trembled beneath them.

* * *

Dawn Summers stuffed a black dress in her duffle bag. Although she had learned to pack light from her sister, it was the third black garment that had filled the back. She had no idea what any of the black items were, she just blindly pulled them from the hangers in her closet inside of the apartment in Rome. What she was going to wear to her sister's second funeral was the least of her worries.

She held her cell phone to her ear as she heard Rupert Giles' words of concern and comfort being relayed from his office in Scotland. "Are you sure you're going to be able to make the trip alright?" the Watcher asked.

"Of course," Dawn answered as she zipped up her luggage. "I fly around on airplanes all the time now. This doesn't make anything different."

"Yes," Giles corrected with sympathy, "it does."

Dawn paused and was still as she stared down at her bed and its lime green bedspread. This trip was different. Her sister was dead and there was no saving her this time. She didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

"Is Andrew going with you?" Giles asked, not wanting to hear Dawn burst into tears. Although it wasn't very often that she did that anymore.

"Yes," Dawn sighed. "I think he's ready." She lifted the bag off her bed. "Well, look, Giles, I'll call you between flights at JFK. I've got to go now."

"Take care."

* * *

Giles heard the phone signal cease as he slowly pulled the cell phone away from his ear. The Watcher stood in his darkened office in contemplation. He let out a slow sigh as he stared down at his desk tiredly. The ringing buzz of his cell phone snapped him out of his daze as he quickly pressed the button.

"Uh, hello?" he answered idly.

A familiar male voice responded back. "Rupert?"

Instantly, he recognized the British-accented voice. "Yes?"

"Did you hear about the explosion?" his old colleague asked.


	4. Chaos Theory

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**  
4: Chaos Theory  
**

Malcolm Janus climbed in through the window opening with gloved hands which protected his palms from the shattered glass. It was a few minutes before daylight and here he was alone in the Los Angeles Museum of Science. He had broken a small window near the loading dock of the museum, not really caring that there was video surveillance capturing his every move. By the time anyone watched the tapes, it would be far too late.

He pulled himself through the window and came to a stand in the corner of a darkened hallway on the first floor of the museum. He brushed off his long dark jacket and retrieved the flashlight from its inside pocket. Janus marched down the hallway with intent, making his way passed the space exhibit to the geological center.

Malcolm stomped his way into a room filled with geological stones from all over the world, most of them born of the Earth but a select few with alien origins. There was one that the Illuminati had kept careful watch over for centuries, waiting for a moment like this. Janus walked through the enormous room of stones of every size, many of them worth millions of dollars, and walked up to one particular exhibit with a heart of malice.

The former secret aide to Vice President Stillson stared through the glass wall with bitterness on his tongue. On a plaque of soft white linen, a large crystal protruded upwards in gothic fashion. It was mostly green in hue, but had a dark black center deep within the semi-transparent stone. The number 307 was posted on a small card next to the stone, which led down to a card posted at the front of the case which displayed the scientific name of the strange crystal: Ununoctinite. One could see the darkness of hell inside of the crystal if he looked hard enough, and an agent of the Illuminati as Janus was knew exactly where to look.

More frighteningly, he knew exactly how to use it.

Using the end of his flashlight, he smashed through the glass of the case, sending off a shrieking alarm that did not faze Janus. He reached into the case and took hold of the precious stone.

* * *

Pandemonium filled three square blocks surrounding Tyler Memorial Hospital as crowds of confused onlookers, police squads and firefighters pushed towards the building. Walt was trying to maneuver his silver rental car through the crowds with Bruce in the passenger seat and Johnny and Angel in the back seat. Johnny barked directions constantly.

"Here!" he anxiously ordered. "Go down this street here!" The car was blocked in wall to wall by other cars filling the street.

"I can't go anywhere!" Walt exclaimed. "This is it… This is as close as we're getting…"

Bruce reasoned with Johnny, "John, I don't really think we're gonna be able to get there—"

But it was too late. Frustrated, Johnny opened the door and rushed out into the morning crowd with Angel following.

"Never mind," Bruce sighed. He glanced over to Walt telling him, "Just leave it." The men abandoned the car, as had everyone else on the street at that time, and rushed to find Johnny and Angel in the massive crowd.

Smoke and ash filled the air around the tightly packed buildings, streams of sunlight providing a little light for those around. Walt and Bruce found Johnny and Angel rushing up the street, dashing around bewildered onlookers covering their mouths and noses from the dust. Walt and Bruce reluctantly tried to catch up, striving not to lose them in the swarm.

All of the people were standing and staring up towards the emptiness of a building which was no longer there with bizarre expressions. News crews, consisting of a single reporter and a cameraman, desperately tried to push past the crowds and the cops to get a good shot of the amazing sight.

Johnny and Angel stopped across the street from Tyler Memorial Hospital and gazed with puzzlement. Bruce and Walt, as soon as they arrived, shared the same confused feelings. The entire hospital lay in rubble piled several stories high.

Johnny glanced over past strange faces to see a female reporter holding a Channel Nine microphone. "Excuse me," Johnny asked the reporter, catching her attention. "What happened here?"

"Some sort of explosion," she hastily explained as her cameraman began to set up the shot. "Whole building's destroyed. No one knows why." She nervously primped her blonde hair as she began to compose her dialogue.

"How many are dead?" Bruce asked.

Both the reporter and the cameraman hesitated as they glanced at each other and turned towards them. "None," she explained simply. The cameraman turned on the camera light and signaled her to begin reporting. "Thank you, James. This morning, downtown Los Angeles was shaken with an enormous explosion which leveled Tyler Memorial Hospital. Officials are at the scene now and no one seems to know what caused the blast, but one-by-one survivors have started climbing out of the wreckage…"

The four men looked back towards the rubble and saw dust-covered hospital patients, doctors, and nurses wandering from the area in confusion. "Look!" Angel declared, pointing over towards a fallen steel beam pinning a man to the ground.

They dashed across the dust-covered street and carefully made their way to the edge of the pile. Bruce glanced around warily. "Everybody, watch it!" he ordered. "It's still unstable."

Johnny and Angel moved over to the conscious man, his face pale with stone dust. He stared up at the sky with a dazed expression. "Help me," the doctor whispered.

"It's okay," Johnny replied. "We're gonna find help."

Already, the beam was being lifted off of him. Walt tossed it aside as he came to the aide of the pinned man. Bruce stood by them and watched, bewildered. He stared at the steel beam and stared at Walt oddly, but he was the only one who seemed to notice.

"Don't try to move," Angel ordered, but the doctor didn't listen. He came to a careful stand as he gazed around the street. Johnny glanced him over.

"Does anything hurt?" Johnny asked.

"No," the doctor shook his head as he began to walk away in a zombie-like state. Johnny and Angel glanced at each other peculiarly.

"Nothing's broken," Bruce declared as he studying the man. "He's walking fine."

"No bruises," Angel noted. "No cuts. No blood."

Walt continued to gaze around at the wandering survivors around him. "No blood anywhere. Nobody's hurt." He turned to John at a loss. "How the hell does that happen?"

"Hey!" a police officer called from the side. "Get out of there! Are you guys nuts? Emergency personnel only!"

Johnny turned away from the officer, ignoring him. He began to march towards another side of the wreckage. "John!" Bruce called after him. "Where are you going?"

"I've got to find her," Johnny announced.

"Huh?"

"I've got to find Buffy!" he snapped.

"Johnny!" Bruce called after him, grabbing him by the arm. It took a lot to stop him, but John turned back and faced him impatiently. Bruce looked over at Walt and Angel and knew he should tread lightly. "What exactly do you hope to find?" Bruce asked. "Buffy's dead."

Johnny stared at him in silence with a peculiar expression. For a moment it was almost as if he had forgotten. A dark expression set into his face. "I _know_ that," Johnny bit off. "Her body… we have to find it…"

"Let the cops do that, John," Walt sympathetically answered. "This whole place is a death trap. You can get hurt if you go in there, or even worse."

Angel looked away and stared down at the pieces of rock scattered on the ground. He crouched down close to them, staring at them intently.

"This has to be related!" Johnny declared angrily. "There's no way she dies and six hours later this place just blows up for no reason!"

"They haven't found the reason yet," Bruce tried to explain.

"This is about Buffy," Johnny said with determination. "It _has_ to be…"

"How?" Walt asked.

"Janus." The three of them turned back to Angel who had uttered the single word as he remained crouched down to the ground, holding a piece of concrete in his hand. "Malcolm Janus." Johnny, Bruce and Walt glanced at each other, before Johnny approached Angel suspiciously. Angel looked up at him. "He was here. Or… in the morgue. Last night."

Angel paused in his speech as he stared up at Johnny. "How did you know that name?" Johnny demanded.

Angel's eyes fell to the ground. "I don't know."

Johnny fired back, "Don't tell me you don't know – tell me how did you—?"

"I said I don't know!" Angel declared with frustration. He glanced around the street and the chaos around him and mulled over the chaos in his mind. He was as lost in confusion as the others were. "Does the name mean anything to you or not?"

Johnny glanced back at Walt and Bruce, then stared at Angel suspiciously. "He's part of the Illuminati. He's the man behind Stillson." Johnny continued as he gazed around the destroyed block, "He and his men believed that they could bring order out of the world through chaos. It was their goal to cause a disaster that would change the world." Angel stood up as he looked Johnny in the eye. John remembered the events which occurred two nights ago vividly. He recalled finding Janus on the rooftop with them, watching Stillson, and all the plans of the Illuminati, fall over the edge of the building.

"He warned us," Johnny declared, remembering clearly. "'You will regret this night.' That's what he said."

"You think he caused this?" Walt asked.

Johnny turned to Angel with a furrowed brow, studying him carefully. "Maybe he made good on his threat," Bruce suggested.

John shook his head with disgust. "I think that there's a good chance he's behind this," he explained. "And if he is, I know where to look."

* * *

Dawn gazed blankly and silently out of the oval window of Flight 4216 from Rome to New York. She stared at the darkness of the runway as the flight attendant explained all sorts of details about what to do if the plane crashes. Oxygen mask, brace position, seat is a floatation device… Who cares?

"You know what I heard?" Andrew Wells, the short, nerdy, blonde guy sitting next to her said – one of fifty things he had said to her in the trip from the apartment to the airport to the plane. "I heard that the FAA created the brace position to kill everyone off quickly so they wouldn't have to suffer after the crash." He laughed nervously, sweat forming on his forehead.

Dawn gave him no reply. It was yet another pointless fact bestowed on her. Andrew took a deep breath and leaned back in the seat, directing the air conditioning panel above him directly on his face, twisting it to full blast.

"I get so nervous on planes," Andrew said. "I should have brought my iPod so I could be soothed by the soulful sounds of Christopher Cross." He looked at the side of Dawn's unresponsive face. "But at least they let me bring my magic rocks." He reached into his pocket and retrieved four small green stones which were shiny as glass.

After a tremor throughout the plane, the aircraft slowly began to pick up speed as it taxied to the runway. Andrew swallowed hard again as he inhaled and exhaled through his nose. He held his breath for a moment after another sharp bounce as the plane picked up speed. "_And if the wind is right you can sail away_," he softly began to sing. "_And find serenity_—"

"Andrew," Dawn silenced him coldly, her voice bogged down with frustration.

"Sorry," he replied sheepishly. Andrew glanced around as the plane lifted into the air. "Hey, Dawn," he began gently and carefully, "when do you think… we should call off the Buffy look-alikes?"

Dawn stared out the window motionlessly. "I don't know," she said with a quiet, defeated voice. "I don't know anything."

* * *

In Scotland, Giles was inside a board room in the headquarters of the Watchers Council with several key figures seated at a table. Xander Harris, Robin Wood, and Sunnydale Slayers Kennedy, Vi, and Rona were gathered at the table and were receiving their briefing from Giles based on information retrieved from his colleague in Los Angeles.

"As you already know," Giles began, removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose, "we received word from Los Angeles that Buffy… died yesterday evening."

"Do we know what caused it?" Kennedy asked with a bit of frustration. She was just as distraught by the lack of information as the others that had known Buffy for a much longer time.

"Not at this time," Giles shook his head tiredly. It was the middle of the night in Scotland, but it didn't seem there would be any relief soon. "But we do have confirmation that Angel has returned to L.A. as well. I believe he's looking for Johnny Smith."

"What would he want with John?" Xander asked, wearing something of a military uniform to go with his eye patch. He believed it encouraged the Slayers to call him Sergeant Fury, which gave him a kick-your-feet-in-the-air rush every time he heard it.

Giles shrugged his shoulders a bit. "Not really sure," he stated with his British accent. "But we believe that it probably has something to do with the fact that he's human now."

"Say what?" Robin, son of former Slayer Nikki Wood, exclaimed. The dark-skinned, well-built, former principal of Sunnydale High School had become a commander of some of the Slayer troops in Buffy's absence.

"He can walk in the daylight," Giles explained. "We know that after the destruction of Wolfram & Hart, he disappeared and was spotted in Romania – still a vampire. But recently he has been observed countering several vampires near Los Angeles. His powers appear to be… significantly decreased."

"Does this have anything to do with what happened to Buffy?" the red-haired Slayer named Vi asked. She had trained with the original Potentials in the Summers' household under Buffy before the Battle of the Hellmouth.

"I don't believe so," Giles shook his head. "But, of course, the details are… incomplete. What we do know is that we're now tracking a concern with the Illuminati, an ancient sect which was behind the Presidential campaign of Greg Stillson, according to Johnny Smith."

"Are there rumblings among the masses?" Xander asked.

"Quite the contrary, actually," Giles explained. "They've been remarkably silent. Right now we're looking for a man named Malcolm Janus. He's an active member of the Illuminati, the one closest to Vice President Stillson. He encountered Buffy and Johnny personally on several occasions."

"Well what do we do now?" Rona, another one of the original Potential trainees, asked impatiently. "I mean if Buffy's dead and something's going down with this Illuminati group we need to take this on now. It's what we should've been doing in the first place."

"What do you mean by that?" Kennedy asked, a bit offended by Rona's harsh tone. She was known for being the first to criticize a situation, but it was her trying to strive for perfection.

"I mean that we knew about this thing with Stillson, what, a year ago?" Rona answered sharply. "We knew about the Illuminati back when Buffy ran off to the States and lost her powers. _We're_ the most qualified to take something like this on, so why weren't we the ones handling this whole operation?"

"You're saying that Buffy and Johnny weren't qualified?" Xander repeated, offended. "I'd say the fact that they killed the guy that was supposedly going to go trigger-happy and nuke the world is a pretty good way of handling the situation."

"They didn't stop the Illuminati," Rona argued.

"They would've in time," Vi suggested.

"And now Buffy's time is over," Rona snapped.

"That's enough!" Giles declared with a commanding voice. The discussion at the table came to an abrupt end.

"I think we need to carry out our original plan," Robin suggested, "now more than ever."

"Bustin' Faith out of jail?" Xander replied.

Giles nodded and agreed, "Her arrest was an untimely one, that's for sure."

"I'll take a team with me to California right away," Robin declared. "Once Faith is secured, we'll try to make contact with John Smith." He glanced over at Rona. "We'll see if we can take control of this situation."

"I don't believe you need to hijack their operation," Giles declared. "The man is grieving, after all. Just as we all are."

"All the more reason to make sure that he can make the right decisions," Robin replied. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"Kennedy," Giles stated, "I've been trying to reach Willow for a few hours. Try to track her down, will you?"

"Sure," she nodded. Kennedy had began dating Willow Rosenberg since when they met each other in Sunnydale. "I was planning on heading back to the house anyway."

"Good," Giles replied. "Vi, Rona; I want the two of you to stay here until you have further instructions. We might need you to gather the Slayers should anything go awry."

"Where are you going?" Vi asked.

"I'm going to Westbury," Giles answered.

"England? _Now_?" Rona replied.

"It's important that I meet with the Coven about some of the information I received," Giles stated anxiously. "It's important that we all stay alert. Now, Xander." He glanced over at the young man who's head was tilted back and his face was towards the ceiling. "Xander?" His chest rose and fell slowly, sleeping peacefully. "Xander!" Giles snapped.

His eye opened and he sat upright with a start. "Yeah! What? Yes?" Xander looked up at Giles as he wiped the drool from his mouth.

Giles gave him a stern look. "You're going to accompany me."

"Sergeant Fury at your service," he blurted. "When do we leave?"

"Now," he declared. He looked at the others. "That is all."

The room came to a stand as one-by-one the members of the meeting exited the room and went their separate ways. Xander held behind as he reached for his jacket draped on the chair behind him. His cell phone began to ring in his pocket as his ringtone, "Trogdor the Burninator" by Strong Bad, blared out of his shirt.

"Hello?" Xander answered, hearing a rush of static on the other end. "Hel-Hello?"

"Mr. Harris?" an accented voice came through on the other end.

"Yes?"

"Xander Harris?"

"Who is this?"

"You need to find Willow Rosenberg immediately."

Xander paused as he held the phone to his ear with uncertainty. "Who is this?" he asked again.

"There's no time to worry about that," the man replied over the static. "Ms. Rosenberg is in danger. You must go now…"

More static washed through the line. "Hello?" Xander called out. "I can't – I can't hear you… Hello?" He looked down at his phone to see that the call had disconnected. "Damn it!"

Xander glanced around the empty board room nervously and rushed out of the door. He said to a passing Slayer, "Tell Giles that I can't go with him because I've got to find Willow."

"Huh?"

"Just tell him!" Xander ordered. "And... tell him... not to be mad at me!" After that, he rushed off down the hallway towards the exit.


	5. Intervention

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**5: Intervention**

The sun was beginning to set behind the hills of southern California as Johnny, Walt, Bruce and Angel walked from their rental car across a lawn drenched in shadow by the willow trees hanging about the property. The thick smell of approaching summer filled the musty air as they approached an old, darkened wood cabin sitting on the farm property a few hundred yards away from a desolate barn overlooking the area. The hidden property located north of Los Angeles County had looked abandoned for years, but it was well-known to Johnny and Buffy as the supposed gathering place of the Illuminati.

Bruce, Angel and Walt, less familiar with the property than their leader, glanced around the eerie area with a wary feeling. Angel noted the new feeling as his dark eyes moved from shadow to shadow; fear was the only unfortunate side-effect of losing his powers.

Johnny was much different from the rest of them. This was something Angel noticed first, even though he knew him the least. The power of the Slayer had made Johnny many things – stronger and more agile, for one, but it was the power of losing the person he loved most that made him fearless. Angel knew that John's fearlessness wasn't necessarily a symbol of strength. The power of the Slayer didn't make him indestructible, either – and Angel believed that he was witnessing the destruction of John Smith.

Johnny approached the red wooden door of the cabin first, paint chips were falling off due to years of weathering and decay. John lifted his leg and busted the door open, nearly knocking it off of its hinges, as he marched inside the dark room first. Angel, Bruce and Walt stood back and stared at him as he walked inside.

"That really does look a lot more melodramatic from this point of view," Angel noted.

"Tell me about it," Bruce scoffed as he stepped inside and began to feel across the wall for a light switch. He did his best to ignore the bold smell in the cabin, holding his breath a bit. Bruce flicked the light switch on and off, but the room remained shrouded in darkness.

"I doubt that goes to the garage door," Walt declared as he covered his nose. "Power must be out. And what the hell is that smell?"

Johnny carefully moved across the dark room to a side wall. "I think there should be a fuse box over here," Johnny explained. He reached for the metal box and pressed down a few buttons, one of them resetting the power to the cabin. The lights came up around the room as the four of them were now able to see the scarcely decorated, dusty room… and the body of Malcolm Janus lying on the muddy floor.

Angel swallowed hard. This was much more difficult for him now that he was human. He stepped through the mud towards the corpse nevertheless, Johnny joining him at his side. John kneeled down and viewed Janus' burned body and noticed the pool of water around him. "He electrocuted himself," Angel declared, trying to stomach the sickening smell. Johnny glanced over to see the bare electrical wires coming out of the wall leading into the fried palms of Malcolm's hands.

"I don't get it," Bruce sighed. "If he was ready to fight, why would he off himself?"

"I think he already did what he had to do," Angel answered. His eyes were now on the mud-covered rug covering the wooden floor beneath his feet. "His part in this must be done."

"What are you saying?" Walt stared at him with peculiarity. Johnny came to a stand and faced Angel with suspicion.

"He stole something from a museum," Angel announced with a voice of certainty going against his clouded face. The former vampire stepped back across the room, eyeing the rug. "A rock… some sort of… rare stone," he continued as he reached down and pulled back the massive oval rug.

As he dragged it away, a massive symbol was revealed painted in jet black across the floor. A massive circle eight feet in diameter was painted on the wood, with an upside-down equilateral triangle stretching inside of it. In the center of the triangle, a single eye-shaped oval glared at them all with an ominous evil stare.

"Well, there's some interesting décor," Bruce nervously stated.

"The Symbol of Armageddon," Angel whispered as he stared down at it. He looked up to see the suspicious faces of John, Bruce and Walt staring back at him.

"How did you see this here?" Walt asked.

Angel began to shake his head in denial. "No," Johnny cut him off before he could say anything. "You know things that you shouldn't know. You're having visions. The question is how."

"I don't know," Angel said honestly.

"Yes, you do," John demanded impatiently.

"Look, we can play this game all night!" Angel snapped. "But the truth is… I don't remember much of anything." His volume lowered as he calmly explained, "I didn't remember anything all at until yesterday. Now the last thing I remember is taking on Wolfram & Hart in that alley in the rain."

"Wolfram & Hart was destroyed more than a year ago," Johnny replied, stunned and in disbelief.

"And I don't remember anything that's happened since then," Angel answered. "Something happened to me two days ago and… then I had a vision. I knew that Buffy was dead."

"So not only are you human, but you're having visions, too?" Walt asked in confusion.

"Of the future," Angel explained, "and sometimes the past."

"Then why didn't you see any of this coming?" Johnny asked with a hint of bitterness.

"What?" Angel snapped at Johnny with just as much frustration. "Do you want me to touch you?"

"First of all," Johnny announced, "don't ever ask me that again. Second of all, do you mean to tell me that you're getting your visions through physical contact?"

Angel nodded, "Yeah."

Johnny, Bruce and Walt glanced at each other ominously. Bruce looked over at Angel. "You bump your head recently?" Bruce asked.

He shrugged. "How should I know?" Angel responded. "Why?"

"Your visions are the same that I used to have," Johnny declared. "The same that Buffy had. Now you have them." Johnny glanced down at the Symbol on the floor. "What does that mean?"

"All of this is happening too fast," Walt declared nervously. "Either way, we're going to have to call the cops down here to get this body taken care of. It's obviously a suicide, so they should be in and out within a few hours." He looked around at the others. "Is there anything in here that we need to find before they do?"

A figure suddenly appeared in the doorway as they all turned on defense. John stared at the female face with bewilderment as Dana Bright walked into the cabin and eyed the body on the floor with disgust and frustration.

"Damn it!" the fiery red-haired reporter scoffed.

"Dana?" Johnny declared in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"We're too late," Dana answered as she kept her eyes fixated on the floor. She turned to the doorway and as another man walked in, looking just as upset. Angel was the first to recognize the younger man at the door.

"Oz?" he declared.

Daniel 'Oz' Osborne, the blonde-haired young man and former member of the Sunnydale band Dingoes Ate My Baby, hadn't been seen for years since he ended his relationship with Willow Rosenberg to search for a place in the world, and a cure for his uncanny affliction.

"Who?" Bruce asked.

"One of Buffy's old friends," Johnny quickly answered before Angel had a chance to explain. Angel glanced over at him, realizing even more how close he was to Buffy's past, despite never being there.

"Uh… we… know each other," Angel stated. The others stared at him as Angel added, "He's a werewolf."

"A what?" Walt exclaimed.

"Former," Oz answered laconically.

"Former?" Angel was surprised.

"Formerly former, actually," Oz replied after some consideration.

"Oh," said Angel. After that, he was significantly muted with embarrassment. However, it was clear that there was something slightly more pressing at hand. Oz and Dana were both gazing around the room with a panicked expression. Or at least as panicked as Angel has ever seen Oz appear.

"What the hell happened here?" Dana demanded.

"He killed himself," Johnny answered. "Now my turn. What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for Johnny Smith," Oz declared.

Dana pointed at the new Slayer. "That's him, Oz. Tall, dark and dramatic."

"Oh," Oz replied. "Hi."

Johnny was about to answer, but paused, turning to Bruce. "I'm not dramatic, am I?"

Bruce turned away from Johnny, ignoring him as he kept the conversation going. "Let me guess," Bruce said to Dana, "you're the one leading him to John."

"He knew I could track him down," Dana replied. "Which is harder now that you don't have visions anymore."

Johnny, Walt and Bruce glanced at each other. "I thought we kept that secret," Bruce whispered.

Johnny turned back to her. "Why does that matter?"

"Psychics give off psychic energy," Dana responded. With a sigh, she added, "Ask anyone that can read people, you don't give off that energy anymore." She turned to Oz. "We need to find a reader."

"What are you talking about?" Walt asked, lost in confusion.

Oz reached into the pocket of his denim jacket and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper. He unfolded it and held it up for all to see. The Symbol of Armageddon was sketched heavily on the paper with pencil. Oz declared to Angel nervously, "We need to find Lorne."

* * *

Dana opened her hotel room door in West Hollywood and let the group inside, Johnny entering after her. Once he cleared the doorway he paused in amazement as the group filed in behind him. He stared around at her cluttered hotel room which looked as if it had been occupied for quite some time. The floor and tables were littered with papers containing text and images, and thick books on top of more thick books – all of it concerning the occult.

In other words, her library could give Giles' a run for its money, according to what Buffy used to tell him.

"Always the good reporter," Johnny declared to his old friend.

Dana was one of the first allies he had come across since he emerged from his coma with psychic powers. The reporter inside of her wished to pick his abilities apart, but she learned to respect Johnny and the two of them became friends. For a time, Johnny and Dana had attempted to become more than that, but it was clear that they weren't really made for each other – causing Dana to leave and pursue her career as a journalist.

"I've been doing my homework," she answered with a smile.

Angel lifted up a book off the table titled _Tales of the Slayer_. "I'm guessing you don't really need to be filled in on anything."

"But _we_ could use the Cliff's Notes," Bruce suggested.

As Oz entered the room, he being the last of the group, he closed the doors and began to explain. "I got rid of the wolf inside of me," he began. "I was living fine without for a while. Studying ancient techniques. Living from place to place… but it's come back." He sighed as he glanced out the window at the dark night with worry. "I can't control it this time." He looked over at Angel. "I don't understand. I was _helping_ other people… like me. I gave them the hope that their fate wasn't written in stone."

Johnny stared off into the corner as echoes of Buffy's voice filled his mind.

Oz continued in a calm voice, "I needed someone to tell me what was up." He turned to Johnny, who was trying to rid himself of his memories. "I knew that Buffy would help me and… I was hoping that she could ask you to read me. When I was trying to track you two down, I was given Dana's number and was told she was trying to do the same. She's the one that told me that you weren't the psychic anymore."

"Wait a second," Walt stepped in with confusion. "Who led you to Dana?"

Bruce asked Dana, "And _how_ did you find out that Johnny wasn't psychic?"

"A man named Alva Keel," Dana explained.

"What do you know about him?" Johnny asked.

Dana and Oz glanced at each other silently. The red-haired reporter shrugged. "Well…. He's British…"

Angel and Johnny glanced at each other, stunned. "That's it?" Angel declared.

"Well, he _did_ drop Giles' name," Oz replied. "I figured… they're both British, they must know each other."

"Interesting assessment," Angel rolled his eyes.

"We were desperate for information," Dana explained nervously, "and he was pretty certain about one thing: something very big is happening here. _I'm_ a testament to that."

Johnny turned to her curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

They turned to her with equal interest as she stared back at them anxiously. She turned away momentarily as she hesitated, her mind mulling tensely. Dana glanced back at Johnny then marched across the hotel room to the vanity beneath the television set. She opened one of the drawers to reveal that it was filled completely with candle sticks of all different sorts.

She retrieved a red candle stick and held it up for all to see, almost like a magician at the beginning of a trick. Dana lifted her other hand, revealing it to be empty, and then placed her fingertips on the wick of the candle. Just as a magician would, she pulled her hand away and a flame was left behind on the candle wick. The candle burned brightly as she turned her candlelit frown towards Johnny, quite disappointed with her amazing power.

"Now try to explain _that_," Dana frowned unhappily. Johnny watched as the men around her viewed her almost as a sideshow freak. It was a strange bit of irony, since this is the way that the reporter in Dana viewed Johnny once upon a time. Now the tables had turned.

Bruce broke the stunned silence, "Can you do that again?"

Johnny elbowed him in the side and gave him a disapproving look.

"I can do it as many times as I want!" Dana snapped. "What I _can't_ do is make it stop. Or figure out why it's happening." She continued her rant as she tossed the candle a few feet away from her into the lavatory sink. "Or hug somebody without burning them… Or explain to the insurance company how my house burned down…." She turned to the others. "Shall I go on?"

They shook their heads apologetically with sympathy.

"Pyrokinesis," Angel declared. "I'm guessing no one else in your family ever had this problem?"

"No," Dana answered. "That would be a logical answer. For this, there aren't any."

"Wait," Bruce suggested, "you don't know about Angel… We think he's got Johnny's powers now. Maybe he could—"

"He won't get anything," Dana responded hopelessly with her arms crossed.

"How do you know?" Angel asked.

She extended her hand towards him with a sigh. "You can try it, but I'm pretty sure you're not going to get a vision."

Angel glanced over at Johnny, then reached for her hand. She pulled back for a moment with a warning. "By the way," she explained, "it burns. Really bad."

Angel hesitated as he stared down at her hand. With a sigh, he reached out and touched her palm. It was as if he'd burned his fingers on the stove. He removed his hand immediately as the skin of his fingers fried.

"Ah!" he whispered as he waved his hand in pain. "She's right," he answered. "No vision."

"Keel told us that would happen," Dana answered. "The only person that can read me is Lorne."

Angel shook his head as he came to an understanding. "Who's Lorne?" Walt asked.

"An empath demon," Angel explained. "From a different dimension." He looked over at Dana. "He can read your future by listening to you sing. That's why he's the only one that can read you… he doesn't have to touch you."

"Exactly," Oz responded. "We just have to find him."

"That's going to be hard," Angel explained. "Lorne's gone. Out of the fight. He dropped underground right before the battle with Wolfram & Hart."

"Faith found him," Oz answered.

"_Faith_?" Angel repeated. He said to himself, bewildered, "How much of the supporting cast are we using today?"

"We told you this was big news," Dana answered.

"Faith's a Slayer," Johnny stated. "Why didn't you just go to her?"

"It's hard to sneak up on a psychic," Oz said.

"You'd be surprised," Johnny scoffed.

"Lorne saw her coming… or… _heard_ her coming, or humming, I guess... I'm still not clear on that," Oz explained. "Anyway, she got nabbed and arrested. Now she's sitting in a jail in L.A."

"Arrested?" Walt explained.

"Faith's an escaped convict," Angel nodded, remembering. "Forgot about that."

"L.A.P.D. didn't," said Oz.

Johnny sighed, "This doesn't sound like it's leading to a brilliant idea."

"We've got to break Faith Lehane out of prison," Dana announced. "Then she can tell us how to find Lorne, so we can ask him what's going on."

Johnny faced the wall, overwhelmed, "Yep, definitely not brilliant."

"Are you crazy?" Bruce exclaimed. "Why can't she just use her one phone call?"

"That would work if we didn't actually need her _physically_," Dana declared. "According to Keel, we do."

"Well, did this all-knowing, mysterious Keel tell you how we were supposed to break into a police station and break out a captured criminal?" Walt asked in frustration. "Trust me; it's harder than in the movies. I should know."

"Of course you should, sheriff," Dana sneered. "Which is why Keel told me you were the one who could lead us."

"I don't think so!" Walt laughed. "I don't feel like being shot so I can help an escaped convict… escape. Again."

"Then you should be fine if that's your only worry," Dana answered. "You being bulletproof and all."

The group turned to him with confusion. He stared back at them silently, then turned to Dana in denial. "Tell me something, have you completely lost it or are you just trying to get a rise out of me?"

"When was the first time you realized you were impenetrable?" Dana asked.

Walt shook his head, "I don't know what you're—"

"You've got the affliction too," Dana accused.

Bruce turned to Walt peculiarly. "You mean more people are gaining powers?"

"According to Keel, it's nature's way of gearing up for war," Dana explained. "And Keel told me that your ex-sheriff was the new Man of Steel."

Walt shook his head with a scoff, but found that now Johnny and Walt were both eyeing him with suspicion. "This morning I saw you lift a steel beam off a man without a sweat at the hospital site," Bruce noted.

Walt looked away. "Last month, when we were ambushed by Stillson's bodyguards in Washington you didn't have a scratch on you," Johnny declared. "Walt, is there something going on?"

He gave no reply as he stared at the wall motionlessly. "Sorry, sheriff," Dana declared. "Looks like you're in the same boat as me."

Bruce and Johnny glanced at each other as Oz declared, "Sorry to 'out' you like that, but… this hopeless mission will be even more likely to fail in broad daylight. We need to move."


	6. Breakout

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**6: Breakout**

The streets of Los Angeles were still dark as the moon hung over them a couple of hours after midnight. In an alley behind one of the L.A.P.D.'s precincts, Walt led the group, joined by the newest additions – Oz and Dana, as he surveyed the building. "This isn't like the station we've got back in Penobscot County, John," Walt quietly declared with heavy reservations.

"What do you think they would do with a prisoner like Faith?" Johnny asked.

"I don't know," Walt shrugged. He was still very clearly hesitant about his involvement in this matter.

With a sigh, Johnny asked again, "What would _you_ have done?"

Walt looked over at him as he remembered his long service as sheriff, just one more sacrifice their group had to make to the good fight. He turned back towards the building. "Let's say that our friend Lorne knew that Faith, being a Slayer, was capable of finding him and taking him forcefully… and that's something he let the police know when he called them in."

"Faith wouldn't have gone quietly, either," Angel said. "Faith went to prison in the first place because she turned herself in. Going _back_ would require a little persuasion and a lot of tranquilizers."

"So we agree that they know she's not a normal girl," Walt concluded. "She's a high-risk, high-priority lock-up. We can bet they've got her in one of the few high-security cells in the building."

"Where would they be?" Johnny asked.

Walt glanced over the precinct building. "This wasn't built that long ago. The newer ones include those cells towards the center of the building, but we'd have to take a look at the surveillance footage in the security office to be sure."

Bruce glanced around the alley, with even more reservations and anxiety than Walt. "Okay," he began with something of a laugh, "now when you say _high-security_—"

"Basically, a bank-vault with bars," Walt responded.

A few moments of silence passed as Bruce looked away with his bewildered smile still on his face. "This is crazy," he chuckled nervously to himself.

"Crazy, yes," Dana sighed. "The question is how we're going to do it. Anybody ever watch any movies where they tried to break _in_ to prison?"

"Only one," Oz replied, "but he drove a truck into the front desk and said 'I'll be back.'" They gave him an ungracious look. "I didn't say it was a _good_ idea," Oz explained with a shrug. "Besides, in this situation, the dramatic irony would be lost."

Johnny and Angel glanced at each other. "How do _you_ plan to break into that cell?" Angel asked doubtfully.

John Smith looked over at the back door, lifted his foot and broke the door off the hinges, leading an opening into the police station. "One door at a time," he declared. The others watched with stunned expressions as Johnny rushed into the back of the station.

"Okay," Oz reviewed calmly. "Still overdramatic, but it _did_ save time."

Angel rolled his eyes sarcastically, "Oh, how I wonder who he learned that from." He rushed in after Johnny. Walt turned to Bruce nervously as they followed in second, Oz and Dana following close behind.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Johnny Smith and company, another team was positioned covertly on the roof of the station. Robin Wood was standing with five other team members from the Watchers Council, all of them dressed in black with operational gear.

"Remember, everyone," Robin said in a hushed voice to his team of four men and one woman, "use non-lethal weapons only." He looked to the side at his female team member, a young brown-skinned Hispanic Slayer who had recently developed new powers of her own. "Renee," he asked, "can you tell me where Faith is?"

* * *

The group of six stayed against a wall in a break room in the rear of the police station. At Johnny's instruction, Angel had one hand placed on the wall near the closed door. Angel's eyes opened as he whispered to John, who was on the other side of the closed door. "Two… no, three people are moving down the hall," Angel declared. He snatched his hand away from the wall hurriedly, "Someone's coming."

The door to the break room opened as a uniformed officer carrying a coffee mug entered the room and stared at the five people in front of him against the wall with deer-in-the-headlight looks.

"Hey…" the officer said as his voice was seconds away from a shout. Walt, placed next to Angel against the wall, reached across Angel and yanked the officer in by his collar as John shut the door behind him. The officer turned around to see Johnny's fist flying towards him as it smashed into his jaw. The group took a sigh of relief as the officer fell unconsciously to the floor.

Johnny looked up at Angel and signaled back at the wall. Angel placed his hand on the wall again. "All clear," he declared. With that, Johnny opened the door, looked both ways out into the empty hallway as he began to lead the group down the hall.

Inside the break room, Bruce breathed heavily as he glanced down at the unconscious officer. Oz tapped him on the shoulder. "You okay, man?" Oz asked, noting his distressed look.

"Fine," Bruce answered, trying to calm himself down. "Just fine. Even though I'd give anything in the world to be in the car right now – preferably somewhere safe… like the drive-thru of a Whataburger." The two of them followed the group out of the break room.

Inside the hallway, Johnny and Angel led the group to the last door of the hall. Angel placed his hand on the door, then signaled quietly to Johnny. The male Slayer quickly opened the door outwards and felt a hard bump on the other side of the door. After hearing the collapse of a body, Johnny peeked his head in and saw a uniformed officer on the floor.

He heard more officers about to open the door at the far end of the hallway when he quickly rushed into the security room, beckoning the others inside. Once the group was secured, they closed the door and glanced around the room to see dozens of monitors linked to cameras around the building.

Sure enough, the monitor towards the top left corner had a picture of cell number AA23. Faith Lehane sat against the wall with one foot on the bench beneath her and a bored expression on her face.

"_That's_ Faith?" Bruce asked with a whisper.

"Impressive, John," Walt remarked. "Now, how do we get over there without being noticed?"

Suddenly, alarms around the station began to sound. The group looked up towards the ceiling as they heard clanking sounds in the air conditioning vents above them. Johnny glanced over towards one of the vents as a white gas began to seep in.

"Oh, my god!" Dana shouted as the group covered their mouths. Walt darted towards a set metal supply lockers in the corner and ripped open one of the locked doors. It was evident that Keel's information was true.

"Help me open these!" Walt ordered the stunned group. He found a stash of high-powered rifles in one locker as Johnny ripped open a locker door next to them. "That's it!" Walt declared as he pulled a cache of gas masks and threw them to the others. "Put these on," he ordered, and they did, one by one.

* * *

Outside of the building in the main station, Robin Wood and his team were lowering themselves with cables into the room through the vents, all of them wearing masks. Robin's team tossed more knockout gas canisters around. The room was covered in a thick smoke within seconds as the officers and suspects collapsed to the ground within seconds.

The flashing lights accompanied the blaring alarms around them as Robin and his team descended to the ground. They unhooked their cables as two doors on the left swung wide open. Robin turned to see three officers enter the room wearing masks with weapons drawn.

"Stop where you are!" one of them shouted.

Robin's team instantly countered with rubber bullets, striking the officers as they returned fire. The officers went down to the ground as Robin's team moved out of the room.

* * *

"Move, move!" Angel shouted, as he and Johnny led the group down a different hallway. The gas masks muffled their mouths as they passed the bodies of unconscious officers. The sound of gunfire echoed through the halls of the police station as the six of them flattened themselves against the walls instinctively.

"Are they shooting at us?" Dana exclaimed in terror.

"What'd you expect when you break into a police station?" Bruce answered.

Oz was kneeling down beside one of the bodies of the unconscious officers. "I don't think they're shooting at us," he announced. "This guy's still breathing," he said of the officer. He looked up at Johnny worriedly.

"We've got company," Johnny said, glancing over at Angel.

Angel's hand touched the wall again and he caught a vision. He looked down the hallway, distressed. "Must go faster," he declared in alarm. Johnny rushed down the hall with the group following as they broke into the door of another room. Angel and Johnny entered first, Oz and Dana following. As Bruce and Walt neared the door, they heard the sounds of the doors entering behind them as more gas-mask wearing officers carrying pistols crashed into the hallway.

"Go!" Walt shouted as he pushed Bruce in front of him. The sounds of gunfire rang out behind them as Walt shouted in pain, feeling bullets strike his back. He slammed the door behind him once they were all inside as bullets struck the door from the other side.

"Walt!" Johnny called out as Walt leaned up against the door.

"I'm hit…" Walt grimaced.

"This is it," Dana declared. They were standing in a room with an extra monitor which displayed the inside of Faith's cell, and before them was a giant steel door blocking entrance.

Johnny moved to Walt and stared at the back of his green polo shirt. There were no blood stains on the back where he had supposedly been hit. "Are you sure?" Johnny asked.

"There," Angel pointed to Walt's back. Upon closer inspection, Johnny saw three small holes in Walt's shirt. Walt reached back and lifted up his shirt revealing his skin. The bullets left no puncture wounds, only a few red blemishes on his skin which would turn into small bruises in a few minutes. Walt glanced backwards as far as he could and glanced down past his shoulder blades, having full proof that he now fell into a different category of the human race.

"Leave it," Walt declared, letting his shirt fall to his waist again. He turned towards the others and said with a tone of near-disbelief, "I'm fine."

Johnny, Bruce, Angel, Oz and Dana stared at him stunned for a few seconds before more gunfire was heard on the other side of the door. "Open up!" an officer's muffled voice ordered on the other side.

"How do we get through the door?" Dana said.

"There's a guy on the other side. He's got a keycard that opens the door," Walt answered.

Officers began to bang on the door that Walt pressed shut. "You mean she's not on the other side?" Bruce exclaimed.

"No," Angel declared, placing his hand on the steel door. "There's another door like this on the inside. That's the door to her cell."

"Overkill, isn't it?" Oz sighed. The group looked worriedly towards the door as the officers kept pounding on it. The door jolted as Johnny rushed over and helped Walt hold the officers at bay.

"This isn't going to hold forever, John," Walt said through gritted teeth as he exerted his strength on the entrance to the room. "They're probably going to ram it any second now!"

* * *

On the opposite side of Faith's cell, Robin and his team smashed through a wall with their sledgehammers. They had fought their way through the walls of the building and were going to attempt to enter the room from the back side. Robin walked up to the steel wall, gazing at it. "Torches," he ordered as he and the others pulled out blow torches and went to work on the steel wall.

* * *

"How do we get through?" Dana exclaimed as the door jolted under pressure once more.

Walt ordered as he pressed back the door, "John, you've got to find a way to get them out of here!"

Oz glanced around with a baffled expression. "Um… guys?" The others turned to him, wondering what could be more important than the current crisis. Oz looked from side-to-side. "Where's Bruce?"

Walt, Angel, Johnny and Dana looked around to see that Bruce had vanished. Suddenly, the steel door unlocked and swung open outwards towards the group. They stared inside the room as the door opened and saw Bruce standing inside the room with the keycard in his hand and an unconscious security guard at his feet. A confused expression was planted on Bruce's face.

Johnny stared at him with a stunned face. "How did you—?" The door behind him and Walt had another damaging jolt.

"Go!" Angel shouted as they rushed from the door into the next room. The police broke through the first door just as Walt grabbed the steel door and slammed it closed in their faces. They turned around and found, yet another steel door.

"The holes in this plan just keep appearing," Oz shook his head in stress.

Johnny looked around to the sides of the door and noticed that there were no keycard pads on either sides of the door. "How do you get in?" he declared. Dana was at the officer's desk leaning over the computer.

"This says the station's in lockdown," Dana announced.

"That's it; none of the cells can be opened unless somebody shuts down the alarm," Walt declared.

"Where's that?" asked Oz.

"Not in here," Angel assumed. He looked over to Dana. "You're our only shot."

"What?" she exclaimed in disagreement.

"When Mr. Keel told you to break Faith out of jail," Angel explained sternly, "he didn't intend for you to sit back and do nothing. You've got a power too. Now use it."

Dana shook her head. "I-I can't—"

"They're going to open this door eventually," Johnny said. "If you don't try, Dana, we're all busted."  
Dana stuttered, "But—"

"Just do it!" Angel shouted as he pointed at the door. Dana glanced back at Johnny who had the same demanding yet desperate expression. She walked up to the steel door and placed both hands on it. Concentrating deeply, waves of heat began to emanate from her palms into the metal.

"I think it's working," Oz noted. A few seconds later, Dana leaned back from the high heat being generated from her touch. A bright red spot appeared around her hands and began to grow and spread across the door.

Johnny glanced back at the door behind them and heard the shouts of officers on the other side. He looked back towards Dana to see the hot metal begin to soften beneath her hands as the door concaved in the center.

"You're doing it!" he cheered.

Dana leaned back as far as she could lean away from the burning door. "I don't know how much longer I can take the heat!" she cried.

Angel shook his head as he said worriedly to Johnny, "It's taking too long."

The molten metal began to fall away like pudding as a large hole formed in the center of the door, big enough for a person to fit through. However, through the hole, they could see the protective steel bars lining the back of the door. Through the red-hot bars, they could see Faith standing inside the cell, wearing khakis and a tight, black spaghetti-strap tank, as she stared at the strangers with a puzzled expression.

Johnny placed his ear against the steel door behind him and heard the voices of the officers on the other side shouting into a radio, "Lieutenant, get this door open now!"

He turned back towards the group. "They're almost here!"

Walt ran from the door and pulled Dana away, feeling heat from her shoulder. "Get back!" he shouted as she stepped away from the melting door. Walt gritted his teeth and reached inside the hole, grabbing the glowing bars of the door. He howled in pain as his skin singed on the soft hot metal, just as he assumed it would, but the injury was not as serious as it normally would have been. He pulled the soft metal apart in pain, leaving a large opening for them to pass through.

"Faith, get out here!" Angel shouted.

"Come on!" Walt ordered through gritted teeth as he moved out of the way. Faith gave an unsure glance to the condition of the door and gave a running leap through it. She stopped on the other side of the door and looked around suspiciously at her rescuers.

The group turned back towards the steel door between them and the cops as they heard it unlock.

The door swung open and the uniformed officers spilled into the room. With their guns drawn, they glanced around in sheer confusion. They were the only ones there. They viewed the melted hole in the cell door.

"What the hell was that?" one of the asked, stunned.

* * *

Bruce sat in the driver's seat of Dana's SUV with Johnny in the passenger's seat beside him. The two of them glanced around, stunned. Johnny glanced back to see Walt and Angel directly behind them and Faith, Oz and Dana in the furthest seat.

"Anybody know how that just happened?" Oz asked, perplexed.

"Where are we?" Dana breathed as she stared around.

Johnny looked over at Bruce with a suspicious expression. Through the driver's side window, they could hear a female voice over a radio, "Thank you for choosing Whataburger, can I take your order?"

Bruce turned around and stared at the drive-thru radio, astounded.

* * *

As soon as a hole formed that was a foot in diameter, Robin called off the torches and glanced through the red-hot edges. He stared inside Faith's empty cell and saw the melted portion in the door on the opposite side of the room.

A knowing feeling came over him as he turned to Renee. "If there are _any_ psychics within a one-mile radius of here," Robin asked, "where are they going?"


	7. Awaken

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**7: Awaken**

The dark rain clouds above broke as raindrops fell across Los Angeles County. Bruce drove the SUV through the dark rain as they headed down the freeway towards the farmhouse where Janus' body was found.

"You're sure we should be headed back to the farm?" Johnny asked.

"The police should be cleared out of there by now," Walt replied.

"We need to go back," Angel explained. "I keep… I keep feeling like we're missing something."

"Okay," Faith interrupted. She leaned back in her seat with a hamburger in an orange wrapper in her hands, "Thanks for the lift and all, but… now I gotta ask. What the hell is going on?"

"Believe it or not," Bruce said, still unnerved as he drove steadily through the night, "I've got that same question."

Oz raised his hand slightly. "Um, first," he began, "Faith, hi. And second… I think I know why we ended up in the car." He pointed at Bruce. "He's got the power to teleport."

Walt stared at Bruce with a disbelieving tone, "Like… _Star Trek_?"

"Yeah," Oz answered, then disagreed. "Well, kinda."

"_Stargate_?" asked Johnny.

Oz shook his head, "Nah, think Nightcrawler from X-Men."

"Really?" Bruce replied, stunned.

"How do you figure?" Dana asked.

"He mentioned that he wanted to be in the Whataburger drive-thru while we were back at the police station," Oz explained. "And… we really needed to get in that control room beside Faith's cell. If he _does_ have the teleportation power, maybe it's controlled by strong willpower."

"_Really_?" he repeated. Bruce stared at the road ahead with wide eyes.

Dana said to Johnny, who was having trouble believing the news himself, "Keel did say that a number of people would be experiencing the change. Walt and I have powers… why not Bruce?"

"_Really_?" Johnny heard from beside him. John looked over to his best friend comfortingly.

"Don't worry, man," Johnny began. "I know you can get through this—"

"Awesome!" Bruce grinned. He turned to Johnny, "_I'm_ a teleporter! Man, I _love_ Nightcrawler!"

Johnny stared at him blankly. "Huh?"

"Don't be jealous," Bruce replied. "I'd be sad too if I had to sit through gross visions every time I visited a public restroom."

Angel turned to Johnny. "That happened to you, too?"

Faith finished her hamburger and crunched up the wrapper. "Well, yeah. That was an enlightening subject." She leaned up to the seats ahead of her. "Now does anybody want to tell me why you guys came bustin' into my cell with the fireworks and all?" she asked. "Not that I don't appreciate the save. This definitely wasn't the day I wanted to go back to the joint."

"We know you found Lorne," Angel answered. "Oz and Dana were looking for him. Well, now, we all are, I guess. We were hoping he could give us some insight about whatever Big Bad is causing this."

"You mean you didn't come to save me just because you missed me?" Faith grinned. "What's up with that? Why didn't you just get B to tell you… isn't she makin' with the psychic stuff now?"

Everyone pursed their lips, swallowing hard. "Buffy's dead," Angel declared quietly. Johnny stared out of the passenger's side quietly as the rain spilled across the window.

The female Slayer's face fell flat. Though the history between Buffy and Faith had been legendarily crooked, Faith still felt a powerful sting as Buffy was a large part of the only family she had left in the world. She glanced out of the window, pushing her emotions aside as she always had.

"Lorne opened up a karaoke bar in Santa Barbara," Faith replied after a few moments of silence. "It's right behind a psychic private detective agency. How's that for irony?"

* * *

Angel was the first to open the door to the cabin, leading Johnny and Faith into the living room. The police investigation was clearly over and the police were nowhere to be found, but Robin Wood was standing in the center of the room with his five team members, investigating the Armageddon Symbol on the floor.

"Robin," Faith declared, with somewhat of a surprise. She and her somewhat estranged on-again-off-again boyfriend hadn't seen each other in months since free-roaming Faith decided to pursue her own adventure back in the States. "You're lookin' good," she said with a sultry smile.

"Faith," he said with a smooth rolling tone. "Good to see you made it." He glanced over at Johnny and Angel as the rest of the group entered the room. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Just about," Faith replied coolly. "It wasn't until I started looking for somebody the Watcher's League Unlimited wanted me to find that I ran into trouble."

"I would say you found more than you bargained for," Robin said, glancing down at the Symbol. "Evan, make sure Giles gets a few images of this. I want to know what we're walking into, and I want to know what this symbol is in particular before we move in on Lorne."

"Come again?" Angel interrupted.

Renee glanced over at Angel and replied, "We're going to capture Lorne."

"You don't have to answer that," Robin cut her off. He stared at Angel intensely. "I don't believe we've met officially."

"I don't believe I _wanted_ to," Angel declared simply. "But I can go ahead and let you know if you try to go after Lorne forcefully, you're going to run into more trouble than you think."

"How do you know that?" Robin declared.

"Oh, that's right," Angel answered, "because your first attempt worked out so well for Faith."

"That was an unfortunate mistake," Robin replied as he glanced over at Faith apologetically. "One that we were going to amend ourselves before you showed up."

"Okay, so much for warm welcomes," Faith sighed as she glanced over at Robin with her arms crossed. "What do you got?"

"I've got passage out of the country for you, Faith," he explained. "And as for us, we're acting on behalf of the Watcher's Council to take over this situation before it escalates any further out of hand."

"Now, I was with you until you said the words 'take over,'" Johnny protested.

Robin rolled his eyes a bit and tried to be as gentle and firm as possible. "Mr. Smith," he sighed, "I understand this has been a very difficult day—"

"You've got _no idea_ what kind of day this has been!" Johnny roared. Silence fell across the room as Johnny stared threateningly at Robin. Faith and Angel gave each other a glance, as did Walt, Bruce, Oz and Dana. "So don't think you can walk in and start telling me what the Watcher's Council of England thinks _I_ can do with the rest of my difficult day," Johnny sneered.

They were all working under the duress of grief and confusion.

Robin was quiet as he glanced back at his team. He then made eye contact with Faith who had a somewhat strange pleading look in her eyes. Robin turned back to Johnny with a reserved expression. "What do you suggest?" he asked.

"If anything is going down," Johnny answered, "I'm going to be a part of it. This all leads back to Buffy and we all know it."

"John," Walt kindly interrupted.

"What?" Johnny snapped as he glanced back at him.

Walt looked over at Bruce with a worried look as he began hesitantly, "I'm just saying…" He sighed as he asked, "How are you so sure that this is about her?"

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked, frustrated.

"I mean that all of this," Walt explained, "all of these changes, they all seem to be connected to you… not Buffy."

Johnny shook his head in protest as he turned away from the group with aggravation. He ran his hands back through his blonde hair as he stared at the wooden paneling of the walls. "Walt…" he began to disagree, but the words faded away.

"What?" Walt asked, hoping that Johnny could provide some sort of argument for his own sake. "What, John?"

"I saw…" Johnny began as his eyes fell to the floor. Once upon a time, telling someone what he believed to be true was a whole lot easier. Now things were obviously different, as Johnny was no longer the man who knew what would come to pass. He was now more like the man who knew nothing at all. "She tried… to tell me," he whispered to himself, losing himself in his thoughts.

Angel glanced over at Johnny and stared at him intently. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Faith turned to him. "What do _you_ see?" she asked him. Angel blinked with confusion. "According to what I heard in the car, you're the man with the psychic visions now. What do you think we should do?"

Angel looked around the room as one-by-one the faces turned to him for guidance. It had truly been a long time since he remembered having that burden. He turned around and contemplated deeply, before he turned to Johnny with a revelation.

"Can I touch you?" he asked.

Awkward silence fell around. "Dude," Faith replied. "What the hell?"

Angel rolled his eyes, "I mean… Can I try to get a vision from you? Maybe Walt's right." Johnny turned towards him, eyeing him as he considered the idea. "Maybe this is about you."

A few moments later, Johnny extended his hand. Angel looked down at the outstretched palm and clasped it firmly.

* * *

_New York City_

His heightened senses picked up the sound of a scuffle nearby as the scream of a terrified woman came to his ears. It was both the human and demon natures that attracted his fascination with violence to the sound. He paused in mid-step in the alley where he stood and leaned up against the wall as he quietly listened to the voices, both male and female.

Among the woman's horrified howls, Angel also recognized the familiar roar of a vampire. Two vampires, to be exact. No, he assured himself. He wanted nothing to do with this. He continued walking forwards down the alley, intending to get away from the sound, but he was only getting closer.

Angel wanted to walk away from the fight, but some other strange part of him willed him to press forward. He all of a sudden had some bizarre inclination to fight the good fight.

How silly. How unimaginably stupid. Ideas like that would surely run him into the likes of the Slayer and then that would be the end of him – especially if he was recognized as the infamous Angelus. He would be hunted and extinguished like a parasite.

But that was exactly what he deserved.

Angel found himself moving towards the end of the alley where the commotion was. He came to the end of the alley to hear darting footsteps and saw the outcome his sluggish, hesitant pace had.

A man and a woman – just as he guessed – a young couple, no doubt, were lying in the gutter of the street at the entrance of the alley. Angel stared down at the blonde-haired, green-eyed woman as a puddle of blood poured from her throat and formed around her body. The woman had a large belly beneath her lovely blue dress; she was pregnant. Her lover was unconsciously sitting up against the brick side of the building, his head tilted downwards to the sidewalk. A bloody knot leaked from the side of the man's head, blood dripping from his red-haired skull.

Angel kneeled down and viewed the man's wound closely, but he was closer to the woman lying on the sidewalk beneath him. He glanced down at the woman's unforgiving wound and the hasty way it was made.

Amateurs, Angel thought. However, he shuddered to think of what his soulless self would've done to the woman. It was a blessing that they had not met seventy years before.

It was this memory of what it was like to be Angelus that dismayed the small light in his soul that briefly sparked for good. He bitterly hated Angelus, but secretly wanted to be him again. He wanted to be something in the world.

He glanced over at the near-dead man, and then stared back down at his dead, pregnant wife. Without another thought, Angel reached down and extinguished his desire for justice with the taste of her blood. He bit down on the wound made by her previous vampire attackers and his stomach burned with satisfaction.

With his heightened senses, he heard a familiar sound from his victims – a small, pained gasp. Angel's jaw immediately opened with terror and disgust as he pulled himself away from the woman's neck, holding her upper body in his arms with bewilderment. She was alive, after all.

How did he not hear it? How did he let the beast inside of him rule his senses again? He had tried to become Angelus for a moment, and it was a moment that his soul would not let him have without the sting of guilt. Angel let go of the woman as she began to gasp for air, blood filling her throat.

The woman blinked, life returning to her green eyes, as she gazed around the dark street, spitting out unintelligible words. The pregnant woman's eyes found Angel's blood stained face as he stared back at her with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Just when he swore he would hear her final scream, something truly unexpected happened.

He looked down at the woman's pale hands as they lifted from the sidewalk. She held them outwards as far as she could… extending towards Angel desperately.

Of all the people she could've asked for help, Angel thought, she chose the crazy-looking bum with blood on his lips. He glanced around with realization. It was because he was the only one there.

From above the scene with Angel from the past and the dying pregnant woman, Angel from the future stood above himself with confusion.

* * *

"What did you see?" Johnny asked the hauntingly familiar question.

Angel looked back up at him, deep in contemplation. "It wasn't about you," Angel responded. "It was about me… It was my past." The people around them sighed with frustration and disappointment as Johnny continued to stare at Angel. "Sorry," Angel added. "I was hoping to see something a little more relevant."

Johnny was also in contemplation about the situation. Why would contact with him make Angel see something from his own past? "The visions don't always show you what you want to see," Johnny explained knowingly. "But they _do_ show you what you _need_ to see." Angel looked up at Johnny as the two of them gazed ominously.

Faith looked away and turned her expression to the front door to the cabin. A second later, Johnny did the same. "Did anybody hear that?" Faith asked.

"I did," Oz answered gravely. It wasn't exactly something he was happy to admit.

"Someone's coming," Renee explained. Robin glanced over at her, then back to his team.

"Everyone, hold," Robin calmly ordered. "Be ready to engage."

Johnny felt a strange sensation come over him as he stared at the door. He glanced to the side to see that Angel also noticed the feeling. Angel and Johnny stared at each other in silence for a moment more before Johnny headed to the door and swung it wide open, marching out into the darkness on the cabin porch.

Angel appeared at his side as the two of them stared across the lawn. They froze in place as they stared at the female figure moving slowly through the drops of rain towards them. For a moment, her body was illuminated by the flash of lightning, but there was only enough information about the stranger for anyone to process that she was as nude as the day she was born.

But Johnny and Angel knew who it was without even that much information. When the woman was close enough to be able to recognize her face, the revelation changed everything.

Buffy Summers stood bare-skinned before the cabin, studying it carefully. "This will do," she declared simply, peering at the world around her.

* * *

* * *

_Please review:)_


	8. Creation

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, _Angel_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended

**8: Creation**

Both Angel and Johnny stared at Buffy as she stood nude in the darkness outside of the farmhouse cabin. Buffy's green eyes wandered from tree to rock to patch of grass, taking in all of the parts of her environment when finally she decided to lay her eyes on her two stunned observers. The group of three held their staring contest for what seemed like forever as everything in the world took a gasp of air and froze.

Faith's voice cut through their daze. "What is it?" she called out over the sound of approaching footsteps on the wooden deck. Faith appeared at Angel's side as she stared out at the front lawn, her eyes widening with shock. Her stunned expression turned to one of sheer confusion as she noticed Buffy's slight case of nudity.

"B?" she blurted. "What the hell have _you_ been up to?" A split second later, the brains of Angel and Johnny jump-started at once. Both of them leapt off of the deck and bounded towards Buffy as Angel ripped off his long, black jacket and threw it over her shoulders, covering her body from view.

"What's going on?" Robin asked as he and his team emerged from the cabin, Oz and Dana exiting next.

Oz looked through the darkness and saw clearly the face of the woman standing between Johnny and Angel. "Buffy?" he declared in amazement. The group took a collective step towards her as both of Buffy's protectors defensively guarded her.

"Get back," Johnny ordered as he and Angel gently led her inside, both of them unsuspectingly guarding Buffy from the others and from each other.

"What happened, John?" Walt declared; he and Bruce joined the group now.

"I-I don't know," Johnny answered as he and Angel slowly led her to the porch. "She just… walked up to the house…"

"She's freezing," Angel noted.

"Is there something we can use?" Dana asked.

"I've got a sleeping bag in the car," Oz offered.

Robin said to his team member, "Russell – the clothes we had ready for Faith?"

"I'll get them." Russell rushed off to the van parked in the back.

The group cleared itself from the doorway as Angel and Johnny both held onto Buffy's shoulders tightly, but both of them knew that one would have to let go so she could enter the house. John and Angel glanced at each other with hesitation. With a silent agreement, they let go of her at the same moment and let her gracefully enter the room alone. Both of them shoved themselves through the doorway at the same moment immediately after.

Once Johnny and Angel had finished their small competition, they placed their attention on Buffy. She entered the cabin much like a queen viewing her new domain, staring around at the environment intently. The others in the group re-entered the cabin and watched quietly, waiting for a response as Buffy examined each part of the room, paying more attention to the world than to anybody in it.

Johnny gave a wary look to Bruce and Walt, then gave one to Angel, who had the same look in return. She wandered around the room covered in Angel's long jacket, void of everything that made her the girl they once knew. His blue eyes moved down to his fiancé's fingertips. She didn't have his ring either.

Johnny swallowed hard. It was like he didn't know her anymore. From the expressions on the others' faces, it was like no one else knew her either.

"Buffy?" Johnny whispered. The woman stepped closer to the other wall, examining the pattern on the old curtains over the window. "Buffy?" Johnny tried again. "Buffy, look at me. Can you tell me what happened?"

The former Vampire Slayer stared out of the window as the branches of the willow trees scratched against the glass of the pane.

Johnny stared at her, bewildered. "Buffy, do you know who you are?"

The group glanced at each other with confusion. Angel studied her closely with a suspicious glare. "Are you still who you were?" he asked more appropriately. Johnny glanced over at Angel, and then waited with him for Buffy's reply. It never came.

"You seem more like Illyria," Angel declared as he took a step forward with an intense stare. Buffy took a few steps to the side and stared at the other window in the back, with a view of the well outside. "Answer me," Angel ordered with a cold tone that struck a chord with them all.

Buffy turned around and stared at another object without making eye contact with anyone. "I know neither of these names," she declared quite calmly.

The group shuffled uncomfortably. "Who are you?" Oz asked openly.

"That I do not know either," Buffy declared.

"Buffy… Summers…" Faith began sympathetically. "If you haven't figured… that's your name." She stepped forward a bit as she continued to explain, confused herself, "You were gone, but… now you're not. Any of this ring a bell?"

Buffy flatly replied, "I don't remember."

"Do you remember…" Johnny slowly asked, hiding his heartbreak, "any of us?"

"No."

Buffy was significantly cold with every action and emotionless with all of her answers. She glanced from side-to-side without giving any of them the privilege of eye contact.

"We're going to help you get your memory back," Angel declared.

"What is it that you want from me, Angelus?" Buffy blurted as she spun around and glared him in the eye suspiciously. He paused, thrown off by the cut in her voice – and the words they spoke.

"I thought you said you didn't remember any of us," Faith replied suspiciously.

"I have no memory," Buffy declared unfeelingly. "Only knowledge of what is fact."

"That's not my name," Angel declared, almost warningly. It was so clear that the face in front of him was not that of his former lover.

"And Buffy Summers isn't mine," she unemotionally replied. Buffy turned around and concentrated on her surroundings, her eyes plotting and planning. The others looked amongst themselves with confusion and worry.

"Angel, who do you say she acts like?" Oz asked.

"Illyria," Angel answered, shaking his head. "She was an Old One. But… I don't think she's possessed."

"How do you know?" Dana asked. "You mean this is _normal_?"

"Illyria would think your name was too disgusting for her lips," Angel explained. "And this is as far from normal as she could get."

"But… it's her?" Dana countered, staring at Buffy strangely. "I mean, this is Buffy?"

"In a way that's not," Oz answered.

"Okay," Walt replied doubtfully. "It's Buffy. Kind of. But if she's got so much knowledge then maybe she knows what's going on. Don't you think so, John?" Walt looked over to see Johnny staring at Buffy blankly. It was somehow as if nothing had changed. Buffy was still dead.

Johnny watched as Buffy looked down and found the Symbol of Armageddon on the floor. This was the first thing that truly sparked her curiosity. "I don't think we should stay here," Johnny replied quietly, watching Buffy.

"You wanna hit the road?" Bruce asked.

"That's a bad idea," Robin declared. "L.A.P.D. is scanning this area. They're going nuts trying to figure out who took out the police station."

"And whose fault would _that_ be?" Dana saucily replied.

Robin gave her an unappreciative look. "What I'm saying is… a group like this moving around in the dark will arouse some suspicion."

"I agree, actually," Walt answered. "I think we should camp out here for the night until daylight – have everyone get some sleep. Then we can decide what's next."

Johnny continued to watch Buffy as she stared at the Symbol deeply. Her mind was deep in contemplation as she mulled over the Symbol and its origins. The more Johnny watched, the more he began to realize that Buffy was probably the only one who knew what it meant. That was part of her endless knowledge of fact. Or… it was the one thing she recognized because it was connected to her.

Whoever she was now.

* * *

It was less than an hour before daybreak, but the night was somehow as dark as it ever had been. The rain poured outside, showering down in thick sheets to the rumbling of distant thunder. Bodies were stretched out across the floor in separate areas as the group attempted to get as comfortable as they could inside the dark, dank cabin.

Dana and Oz were not far from each other on the floor as they snored peacefully. Oz had offered Dana his sleeping bag and she was enjoying the little bit of comfort that it gave her. Faith, Robin and Renee were spread out across another part of the room in separate places. Faith snored loudly as Robin had remembered. Without Faith noticing, Robin had covered her sleeping body with his jacket before he fell asleep. The rest of Robin's team had taken cover outside in their van where they had the car upholstery to comfort them. Walt and Bruce were unconscious, one by the refrigerator and the other in a torn, leather chair. Johnny lay back against the couch as Angel slept on the other side of the couch, Buffy lying quietly in between them.

The entire room was silent as Buffy lay still, the sounds of the storm raging outside. With the slightest of gasps, Buffy awakened with her eyes popping wide open, staring at the ceiling. In her head, a voice which had been chanting unintelligibly had finally made itself clear with instructions.

_Kill them._

Buffy sat straight up and came to a stand with the silence of a pin drop. She rushed out of the cabin door, wearing the bright red tank and blue jeans that Robin had brought for Faith. Buffy raced out into the rain, stepping barefoot through the mud and puddles of water, rounding around the corner of the cabin towards the back with fiery passion.

Buffy pounded her way to the back of the cabin, heaving tiredly as she exerted her energy with the feverish run. She bolted through the streets and brush until she found her target… the stone well in the backyard. She fell to her knees in front of the well and buried her hands in the soft mud, pulling away clumps of earth as she madly dug into the ground. Possessed by some unseen force, she continued to dig desperately in the mud until her small thin fingers reached around the green, sharp stone she was looking for – the precious Ununoctinite.

Inside the cabin, Johnny's eyes opened with a start as he sat straight up. Angel also awakened as both of them gazed around in the dark. They looked up at the couch to find it empty, and they both gave each other a worried look.

Both of the men came to a hasty stand as they glanced around, alarmed. Johnny turned towards the window a spotting a figure moving quickly through the rain into the woods. "It's her," Angel whispered as he and Johnny were off out of the door.

The two of them gave chase after her through a quarter mile of wooden area until they could hear a low rumbling sound nearby. Both Johnny and Angel shouted after Buffy, calling her name into the night, but their voices were lost in the rain and crashing of the river nearby.

They kept running through the dark woods as the darkness began to lift with the approaching sunlight. Both of them called after her again, but heard no reply. The loud rumbling they heard finally revealed itself as they reached the end of the woods.

They were at the top of a dam holding the mighty river back as the rain poured down on top of them. Angel and Johnny stopped, heaving heavily as they stared at the edge of the dam overlooking a giant drop into the reservoir below.

Buffy stood on the edge, looking down into the water as the light blue sky flashed with lightning. "Buffy!" Johnny shouted as he held out a hand as if to steady her. Buffy slowly turned around, for the first time recognizing her name as she faced both Johnny and Angel. Angel glanced down at the green stone in her right hand. She stared at the both of them with a sad, desperate look.

A second later, she leaned back and fell backwards over the edge of the dam. "No!" Johnny and Angel both shouted in horror. As Buffy fell through the air she stretched her right hand outwards towards the raging blue-gray sky above her. A bolt of white-hot lightning ripped from the clouds and crashed down through the atmosphere, striking the stone in the palm of her hand, turning the green stone black from the inside out.

Without thinking, the two men split as Angel took off down the side of the dam towards the water below. Johnny bolted for the edge of the dam and dived off the balcony into the reservoir after Buffy. Johnny crashed through the raging surface into the dark water.

He opened his eyes and saw blurry white flashes of light from beneath the surface as he swam towards the strange sight. He could make out the figure of a small woman and he reached for Buffy's arm, pulling her limp body towards him. Johnny kicked to the surface with Buffy in his arms, holding her chin over his shoulder.

"John!" he heard Angel's voice from the edge of the lake. Johnny held Buffy tightly as he swam over to the side, exerting his Slayer strength towards the edge. Slowly his feet found firm ground as he carried Buffy from the water to the west edge of the lake. Angel rushed up to him, heaving heavily from the amount of oxygen exploited.

"She's breathing," Johnny coughed as he held her in his arms. Angel threw his hands around Buffy's face as he stared down at her open lips.

"She's unconscious," Angel noted. He looked up to Johnny thankfully, knowing that he could not have survived the jump. "Let's get her back to the cabin." With a nod, Johnny agreed as the two of them moved quickly to carry her back the distance.

On the east side of the lake, the surface broke as a being emerged from below. A woman-like figure crawled from the water with spider-like movements as a hunter across a web. The dripping, dark, inhuman creature crept across the rocks on the edge of the lake with a wretched, evil smile on its face.

_Yes. This will do._


	9. Omen

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, _Angel_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**9: Omen**

Alarms began to blare throughout the stone hallways of the Watchers' Council Headquarters in Scotland. Dozens of people, many of them young girls, rushed through the quarters of the castle where they were based. Young and old, male and female, each of them were horrified individuals who were unsure if they would survive.

Rona ran with the horde of people as she tried to give instructions to the distressed individuals, shouting over the screams of panic that bounced and echoed off of the stone walls. "Stay calm!" she ordered. "Move towards the exits!"

Behind her, she could feel the presence close behind. Her own heart was racing wildly even though she tried to be the leader everyone needed. She saw what it did to the others… But she still wasn't sure _what it was_. She wasn't even sure if Vi was alive or dead. The only thing she knew was that it was not far behind them.

The hallway spilled out into a command room filled with computers and desks that the people rushed right through, some of them bumping into tables and each other. Rona heard at least one monitor smash to the ground. She glanced over across the room and saw a young woman hunching down behind a desk, her bright red hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Rona cut away from the river of bodies to the side of the room where Vi was hiding. Rona saw that she was holding a Blackberry cell phone in her thin fingers, nervously typing as fast as she could as terrified tears began to form in her eyes.

"Vi," Rona ordered as she reached down and grabbed her shoulder. "We've got to get out of here!"

"We… we can't get out," Vi stuttered stiffly, trying to maintain her strength. "She triggered the lockdown."

"What?" Rona's eyes widened with terror. "Who?"

Vi glanced at her for a mere moment of alarm. "You didn't see it?" she breathed. Rona stared at her in confusion as she turned back towards the phone and kept trying to send her message through. "It won't go through all the way."

"Who are you sending that to?"

"Anyone!" she declared. "Everyone… that's in here…"

"We don't have time for this—" Rona's words were cut off as the entire room descended into darkness and the power all around them shut off. With sunlight as the only form of illumination, a wave of screams erupted all across the castle as the creature began to attack them all.

* * *

That morning, Oz sat in front of Dana's laptop in Dana's hotel room as the two of them researched the Symbol, vigorously combing the Internet without much luck. Dana mulled over the books as Oz tried one last effort.

"Oz, if this symbol really _means_ something, I doubt we're going to find it on Google," Dana criticized tiredly.

"That's why I'm gonna run it through Dogpile and Webcrawler," Oz declared confidently, "then I'll cross-reference it with Malcolm Janus' Facebook and MySpace accounts." Dana gave him an unappreciative look as Oz asked, "Hey, do you think the Illuminati has a YouTube profile we can take a look at?" She sighed and rolled her eyes as he explained, "Look, you'd be surprised what you'll find on the Internet if you know where to look."

He turned around and continued searching through the web pages. "Who did you learn that from?" he heard Dana ask. Oz clenched his jaw a bit as he kept his eyes on the computer screen, greatly distracted by his bittersweet memories.

"Old friend," he responded.

His eyes rested on something interesting. "Hey," he began, catching Dana's attention once more. "I-I think I've got something here."

Dana joined him at his side at the computer, leaning over his shoulder. "Is it the symbol?" she asked.

"No… not… totally," Oz answered. "But I bet you didn't know there were Illuminati fan groups."

"Cults online," Dana replied. "Figures."

"I keep seeing these phrases pop up on a lot of these pages," Oz declared, pointing at the screen where a long section of text appeared.

"What is that, a poem?" she asked.

"It's a prophecy," Oz declared, reading the description. "_The Prophecy of the Chosen Ones_."

"Chosen _Ones_?" she repeated. "Okay, I'm listening."

Oz began to read, "'Three kings shall converge in the desert valley. One of them, the Prophet, shall arise from slumber to battle the Great Fires. Another, the Demon, shall arise from blood to battle the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart. The Final – the Slayer – shall arise from the grave to battle the Army of Hell. The Final joins and breaks them all.'"

"Okay," Dana replied with a bit of sarcasm. "I'm no literary expert, but let me take a stab and say that we're talking about Johnny, Angel and Buffy. I mean… Johnny's the Prophet, Angel's the Demon and…"

"Buffy is the Final," Oz repeated, reading over the last line. "'The Final joins and breaks them all.'" Dana glanced over at him, both of them slightly disturbed.

Oz looked back at the computer. "'Sought by Apocalypse,'" he read, "'the Champions make their final stand in the Temple of the Sun where the journey began. The Power relinquished, placed in Two hands. The reflection of the soldier they must face, lest the Black Rock return them to their place. Together they are broken and made whole. The One is killed and consumed by it's own jaws as the river of blood washes the ground away.'"

Dana and Oz stared at the computer uncomfortably. "Beautiful," she responded. "What the hell does that mean?"

"That's the question of the day," Oz answered. "It's all kinda vague."

"Except the part about the Apocalypse," Dana sighed.

"Yep," he agreed. "That part's pretty clear." He heard a loud beep coming from his cell phone as he reached down in his jacket pocket dug around for it. Dana heard her cell phone rattle on the nightstand. She went over, grabbed the phone, and read the text message to herself.

"Huh?" she declared. "Johnny says that Buffy's back… kinda." She looked up at Oz with a shrug. "If that doesn't confuse you, I don't know what will."

Dana made note of Oz's extremely distressed expression as he stared down at his text message. "Oh, I think I've got an example," he declared with a puzzled face.

* * *

Buffy sat on the couch of the farmhouse as most of the large group hung back behind, only Johnny and Angel stood near her. She was nothing like she was before… but she was very different still. She maintained a graceful anxiety as she glanced from place to face with a mix of politeness as if she was a guest in someone's house and suspicion because she was surrounded by strangers.

Across the room, the group tried to maintain conversation, just to make the interaction with Buffy a little less awkward, but it was clear what was on everyone's mind. Walt glanced over to Bruce and asked quietly, "What's the report so far?"

"Johnny says she doesn't remember anything," Bruce explained. "There are things that are sort of… familiar." Walt stared at him with confusion. "Her name," Bruce replied. "But there's… really nothing definite."

"Nothing that can help us," Walt sighed as he studied Buffy carefully from afar. "She looks scared," he noted.

Bruce took his eyes off of Buffy to look over at him. "Aren't you?" Walt turned to Bruce in silent contemplation as he crossed his arms and took a breath.

Buffy looked up at Johnny and Angel at a loss. "I'm sorry," she began tiredly. "I don't remember anything." She looked at both men as if they were no more important to her than strangers on a street. It was probably that look that bothered them both the most, although neither one of them would admit it. "I mean," she clarified, "I kind of remember walking a really long distance and… being here. Wherever the hell here is. But there's a lot of vague in that vague."

Johnny and Angel gave each other a glance before Angel asked, "Do you remember what you were doing last night?"

"You mean how I ended up unconscious in the middle of the woods?" Buffy said with a half-smile and a worried laugh. "Nope."

"Well, that would've been too easy, I suppose," John remarked as he glanced out the window to see Robin outside rummaging through the van in the daylight.

"Maybe Robin's idea of doing a few tests back at the Watchers' Council wasn't such a bad idea," Angel suggested to Johnny.

"_Tests_?" Buffy repeated with disgust. "No, no, sorry… I don't really like tests that much."

Johnny turned to her kindly, "Buffy, we're just trying to help you—"

"Well, then don't," she sharply cut him off in a defensive reflex. Johnny blinked and glanced away, taken aback by her sudden cold tone… one that he was very unused to. "I'm sorry," she began again, regaining her composure. "I'm very sorry… I-I know you all mean well. But you don't seem to understand. You say my name as if you know me. And… I'm sure you do, but I don't know you." She took a breath as she tried to explain herself, "I appreciate your help, I do. But I'm sure not going anywhere for any tests."

"Then we can start here," Robin declared as he walked into the room carrying a tire iron.

"What are you doing with that?" Bruce asked, now having the attention of everyone in the room.

He handed it to Buffy. "Bend it," he ordered. She blinked at him with astonishment, not sure if he was teasing or crazy. Buffy stared at the bar with confusion as she glanced back up at Robin.

"Are you kidding?" she blurted.

"Yes," Robin answered straightly in a monotone voice. "This is a joke I made up specifically for this occasion because I'm a very funny man." He gave her another order, "Bend it."

"I can't," Buffy replied.

"Just try," Angel answered. She looked over at him hopelessly, then stared back down at the tire iron.

With a sigh, she studied it, wrapped her fingers around it and bended it as hard as she could. They watched as the tire iron curled like a pipe cleaner in her hands. She dropped the item immediately on the ground, stunned at her own strength.

"Get out," she blurted, her eyes wide.

"That answers one question," Robin stated.

"And opens up another," Faith declared. "Does that mean that Buffy's slayin' again?"

"Then why would I still be having visions?" Angel asked.

"Well there could be any number of explanations," Bruce stated. "Maybe during the storm when Buffy was hit with lightning it triggered some sort of reverse effect – it empowered her rather than drained her. Or maybe Angel's effects are going to reverse. Or maybe Angel did that Sans-Shoes thing—"

"Shansu," Angel corrected.

"_Shansu_ thing," Bruce continued, "and it caused what happened to Buffy last night. Or what's happening right now. Then of course, it could be that the two events have nothing to do with each other at all."

The group stared at him. "Thanks," Johnny replied.

"Just keeping it in perspective," Bruce said.

Johnny said to himself, "There's no real telling what Buffy can or can't do."

"Not to throw anybody off," Faith interrupted, "but we still don't know why any of this is happening. I mean, this problem just ain't getting any smaller."

"Then how do we help her?" Johnny replied.

"I can only think of one way," Angel said dramatically. "I have to try to use my power."

Walt replied with a slightly worried tone, "This isn't a wall in a police station, buddy. You could be peeking under a really big mystical rock. Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Angel exhaled. "It has to be done." He glanced around at the rest of the group as a tense moment of silence passed by.

"How the _hell_ did I just do that?" Buffy exclaimed as she continued to stare down at the tire iron. The gang turned to her. "I mean, not to divert any attention, but… whoa! Oh… wow… I…" She placed her hands on her head as she stared down at the ground. "I really don't feel so good."

"When was the last time you've eaten?" Robin asked. Buffy gave him a look. "Yeah," he remembered. "Right. Renee? Would you…?"

"I'm on it," she casually replied.

"Buffy," Angel began, "I'm sure you don't know what's going on and… neither do we, but… I'm going to need your help."

"With what?" she asked, uneasy.

"I have visions," Angel declared. "I can see things. Things that have happened. Things that will happen."

"Really?" Buffy declared with a half-smile. "Like a psychic? Cool." Angel was flattered despite himself. He wasn't used to having a power anybody thought was cool. It was a long time since he surprised Buffy.

"All it takes is one touch," Angel explained. Johnny rolled his eyes off of them jealously as he glanced at the wall and sighed with a bit of resentment. "I want to see what happened to you," Angel offered, extending both of his hands lovingly.

She couldn't help but smile at his kindness. "You'll see what happened?" she said as she lifted her hands.

"I'll see _something_," Angel explained. "Hopefully it's something useful."

"Will this take a long time?" Buffy asked.

"I'm not getting any older," he smirked, drawing a returned smile from her. "Well, I guess I am now, but… I can't think of anything more important to do with the time."

John heard himself say aloud, "Well, the rest of us are hungry so let's get this show on the road." Buffy, Angel, Walt, Bruce, Faith and Robin all turned to him as Johnny turned red, shocked that he blurted it out and faced the wall as he reeled his tongue in off the floor.

Angel looked back at Buffy. "When you're ready," he said, extending his hands out again. Buffy gently moved towards his hands, feeling all the attraction in the world between them. Something else very familiar came to light for Buffy as soon as the two of them touched.

* * *

A little later that morning, Johnny paced outside on the porch of the farmhouse cabin alone with his thoughts. The others were scarfing down sandwiches but Johnny couldn't really find an appetite to eat. There were far too many personal conflicts fighting over brain space with potentially global conflicts.

How the hell did Buffy ever figure out how to do that?

Of course, it made sense to him that even though the world was at stake his first and annoyingly only thought was Buffy.

Bruce approached the cabin from across the lawn as he finished his sandwich. He joined Johnny on the steps as John glanced out at the trees around them with a slight sense of peace before the storms.

"Don't say anything," Bruce ordered immediately. Johnny glanced over at him confusedly. "Even though you're not going to admit it, this is something that's bothering you and you can't let it. So just don't talk about it."

"I was doing a great job of that already, man," Johnny replied. "Thanks for the help, though."

"You need help?" Bruce retorted. "Okay, then here's your help. She doesn't remember you. You're upset. But she will." Johnny looked over at him with a silent 'Do you really think so' look. "True love never forgets," Bruce explained. Johnny stared back at him with a gracious expression as he nodded in silent agreement. John glanced out again at the sunlight, noting Angel and Faith standing out over by the rental car.

"Let's get back to work," Bruce declared, and Johnny followed him inside.

* * *

Angel was leaned up against the side of the car staring up at the sky. "Stop sightseeing, dude," Faith declared as she hopped up and sat on the hood of the car. "Tell me – what's this favor you need all of a sudden?"

"Lorne," Angel replied and Faith rolled her eyes in frustration. "Look, I know you got busted the first time. We need to find him and you know where he is; it'll take too long for all of us to get down there. Especially now. And with all of these emotions he'll hear us coming from a mile away." Faith glanced over at him. "Please, Faith," he asked again. "He's not gonna fool you twice, is he?"

"Hell no," she stated firmly. She considered it for a few seconds, bobbing her head from side to side, then agreed. "Alright, man. One more time."

"Thank you," he replied. He began to walk towards the cabin as Faith lingered back at the car.

"I need a ride," she called after him.

Angel tossed Walt's car keys behind him as she caught them in the air. "Don't wreck," he warned. "It's a rental."

"Sweet," she declared as she opened the driver's side door and got in.

* * *

As Angel entered the cabin, Johnny was there to meet him at the door. Most of the others, including Buffy, were too busy stuffing themselves. "Okay, let's talk about what you saw," Johnny said.

"People with glowing blue eyes," Angel blurted.

Johnny stared at him flatly. "And?"

"And that's it."

"Not very particular, huh?"

"I'm not impressed either," Angel shook his head with worry. "I know that with the cryptic vision I also got a nice cryptic bad feeling about it."

"I never really realized how annoyingly unclear those visions are to the people not having them," Johnny declared.

"I can tell you one thing," Angel declared. "I got this strange feeling that Buffy was holding something back." Johnny suspiciously glanced across the room at Robin as he spoke with his team. "He seems kind of hell bent on taking this whole thing over, isn't he?" Angel noted.

"That's what I'm worried about," Johnny agreed. The door opened as Bruce, Oz, and Dana entered together with an exasperated expression.

"You're not gonna believe what Oz told me outside," Bruce explained.

"Why not?" Johnny sighed. "It would give me something new to worry about."

"I just got a text message from one of the Slayers working back at the Watchers' Council headquarters in Scotland," Oz explained. "It's a little scrambled; I think there's something wrong with the network. But it said that Buffy was at the Watchers Council."

"What?" Johnny replied.

Oz glanced over at Buffy, then turned back to Johnny and the others. "And I really hate to bring this part up, but… it read kind of like an S.O.S." Angel and Johnny both found themselves staring blankly at Oz, both of them unsettled. Johnny glanced back across the room at Buffy with confusion.

"That can't be right…" he shook his head.

"How?" Angel asked.

"I don't know," Oz shrugged with confusion. "But I can't get a hold of anyone over there." He sighed as he shook his head. "Somebody needs to find out what happened."

Angel stared closely at Buffy as he said to Johnny aside, "If something did happen out there and Robin thinks Buffy has something to do with it, he'll do everything in his power to take control." He looked over at Johnny who understood Angel's point. "We can't let that happen."

Johnny glanced around at the group, then eyed Bruce closely. "You want the chance to hone your skills?"

"What do you mean?" Bruce asked.

"Teleportation," Johnny explained. "Do you think you can make it as far as Scotland?"

"Whoa," Bruce nervously replied, "I don't know if I'm ready…"

"Now's the time," Angel nodded pleadingly. Bruce glanced back and forth between Johnny and Angel, then sighed in agreement.

"All right," he said, "I'll try. But who's going with me?"

"I'll be with you," Johnny answered. "But I'll need a little help. Oz, Dana, are you up for it?" Johnny asked. Both of them glanced at each other, then nodded nervously. John looked over at Angel. "You going, too?"

"Not me," Angel replied.

Uncomfortably, Johnny declared, "You don't have to stay behind to protect Buffy—"

"I'm aware," Angel answered defensively. He cooled himself down as he explained, "There's something else I have to check in on." Johnny studied the former vampire carefully and then consented with another apologetic nod. Angel glanced back at Buffy, and then said to the others, "Take care. I won't be long." He turned away from the small group and exited quietly through the door.

As he left, Robin Wood approached, staring cautiously at the former vampire's exit. "Where's he off to?" Robin asked Johnny a little as if it were an interrogation.

"He didn't say," Johnny replied. "He said there was something he had to take care of, but he won't be long."

"What the hell could be so important now?" Robin snapped.

"I don't know, man, maybe he wanted to get a pizza," Bruce replied smartly. "Which actually sounds good right now. I'm still starved." Robin shot him a look as Bruce stepped away and the small group broke apart.

"Well you'll all have to order-in," Robin declared, "I don't want anyone else leaving until I get back."

"Where you headed?" Johnny asked, beginning his interrogation.

Robin was particularly short with his answers. "We just got a message from Giles in England," he explained. "We're going to try to make contact. If anything happens here, and I mean anything—"

"I'll call," Johnny sighed. "If it'll go through."

"Try anyway," Robin snapped harshly. Johnny watched Robin and his team go with a slight defiance in his blue eyes.

As soon as it appeared the coast was clear, he moved over to Walt and Buffy. "We're gonna check on something."

"What?" Walt exclaimed.

"Where are you going?" Buffy asked.

Johnny looked over at her and swallowed his tongue. "We think we might have a solution to what's happening, but we need to leave now."

"You mean before that… Robin Wood guy gets back?" Buffy replied.

Johnny stared at her and couldn't help but smile. "You were always way too smart for your own good." She gave a sheepish half-smile in return as she glanced away momentarily. "Why don't you just get some rest?" he suggested.

"That actually sounds like a good idea," Buffy sighed and came to a stand. "Now that it's quiet around here I might actually get some sleep. I feel like I haven't for… ever." She moved over to the couch as Johnny and Walt were left behind.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Walt replied. "The truth?"

"I know you can handle yourself," Johnny answered. "And I need you to just sit tight and look after Buffy for a while. Please." Walt stared at him suspiciously, and Johnny explained "We'll try to be back in an hour."

"Can I at least know where you're going?" Walt complained.

Johnny said to him with a sigh, "Scotland." Walt watched him leave with the others in complete confusion.

* * *

Giles leaned over a table inside of a cement room with three other women inside the confines of the Coven in Westbury. He removed his wire-framed glasses as he wiped the beads of sweat off of his brow, his heart steadily racing. The lights of the room flickered in the fallout shelter as they jumped with fear.

Two of the women, both of them in their fifties and senior members of the Coven stood on either side of the third woman, a young girl with her eyes squeezed shut sitting in a chair. They grasped her hand fearfully as they awaited the young seer's prediction.

The young, dark-skinned woman opened her eyes wide and said fearfully, "It's already attacked again…" She breathed in terror as the irises of her eyes vanished and faded to white, her power overtaking her. "It's coming… somewhere… in the U.S."

"Where?" Giles quietly asked as he faced the wall.

"I-I don't know," the seer breathed. "It's in the northeast…"

"What's happening _here_?" one of the senior Coven members begged. "What's happening outside?"

The teenage girl gasped for air with terror. "It's… coming… here…"

Giles stood up and gazed at the door as it began to shake, the terrible force pounding on the other side. "It's too late," the Watcher declared hopelessly. "It's already here."

The light bulbs surged and exploded, raining shards of glass down into the darkness that surrounded them.

* * *

_Don't forget to review!_


	10. Attack

**Legal Disclaimer**: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, _Angel_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**10: Attack**

Andrew sat back firmly in his seat as he held a small, golf ball-sized, blue orb in his fist. He slowly breathed as he glanced over to Dawn who was staring around at the rest of the passengers on the airplane with a pensive expression. They had been flying around for far too long. Something was wrong.

The plane kicked ominously with a jolt of turbulence that disturbed all of the passengers on board. Andrew gasped as he closed his eyes for a brief second. "Hasn't that been happening a lot?" he whispered fearfully.

"No," Dawn stated with a sigh. "It was only like the third time on the whole way here. That's actually not bad."

"We should've been there by now, right?" said Andrew.

"It's a long flight," she shrugged. The cabin bumped again as Dawn glanced passed Andrew at the wing of the airplane as it coasted through the morning clouds over the northern United States. She looked down at Andrew's hand. "What is that thing you've been holding?"

"Don't worry," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a duplicate. "I got one for you, too. Willow gave them to me for a birthday present—"

"Yeah, but what do they _do_?" she asked impatiently.

"They're teleportation orbs," Andrew explained. "Think of them in this case as parachutes. If the plane goes down we'll be using these thingies to get the hell outta dodge. Whatever that means."

"Andrew, there's not even a storm outside," she stated. "Nothing but light cloud cover. I seriously don't think the plane's going down."

"Maybe not. But better safe than sorry." He stared at both of them in the palms of his two hands. "Statistically, it's the safest way to travel," he added nervously. "You're more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to die in a plane crash. But should something happen, I'm gonna be clutching these balls tighter than—"

An enormous explosion shocked the cabin as a flash of light blinded those inside, pouring in from the windows. The boom was heard a half-second later as the light disappeared and the frightened passengers covered their ears. The plane rocked violently as the orbs slipped from Andrew's fingers.

"No!" Andrew shouted. "The orbs!" Screams rang out all around them as Dawn glanced up and saw the lights of the service panel above her flicker and go out as they were thrown around. The flight attendants still in the aisle were knocked to their faces as carry-on bags fell from storage bins above.  
As pandemonium filled the plane, Dawn glanced down and saw the blue stones rolling away up the aisle. She jumped out of her seat to the floor as the plane began to pitch and stomachs heaved upwards from the downward angle.

Dawn crawled on her elbows, dragging her legs as the oxygen masks fell from above. She chased rapidly after one of the tiny orbs as she stopped at two feet standing in the middle of the aisle. Dawn grabbed onto the stone ball and looked up to see a somewhat familiar face in a terrifying setting. The face brought her less comfort and more fear.

Whatever was happening, the only thought that ran through her mind is that she wanted _out_.

* * *

Buffy sat back on the couch with her feet up in the seat and her arms wrapped around her knees as she glanced curiously around the cabin. A few feet away from her, Walt Bannerman sat in a wicker chair tapping his fingers on the arm rest as he stared down with a bored expression. They had all of nothing to discuss with each other, which made for a significantly awkward half-hour for both.

Finally after a sea of silence and boredom, Buffy's eyes found Walt and studied him carefully. "So… let me get this straight… you're all from Maine?"

"Uh," Walt began, clearing his gruff throat, "yeah. Well, some of us. Johnny, Bruce and I. And you. Well, you… more recently than anyone. I think you lived in California most of your life."

"Okay, and… um, Johnny?" she continued, struggling with her foggy memory. "How did you meet him?"

Walt sighed deeply as he reached back into his own memory. It had been at least five years that had changed his whole life. "When I was the sheriff back in Cleaves Mills, I met Johnny when he came forward to the police with information about ongoing investigations."

"Because _he_ was a psychic?"

"Exactly," Walt nodded. "When he turned out to be the real deal we started seeing a whole lot of each other." He swallowed as he glanced down at the floor. "Partly because of his abilities and partly because I was raising his son."

Buffy's eyebrows raised a bit. "And the plot thickens. What gives with that?"

Hesitantly, he explained as politely as he could, "Before Johnny had his car accident he used to be with a woman named Sarah. She's… you've… you've met her, too. When Johnny went into a coma, she was already pregnant with his son, J.J."

"And now you're married to Sarah?" Buffy asked confusedly. "She didn't wait?" Walt swallowed hard again as Buffy retracted her statement, noticing the discomfort in his disposition. "I mean, not that… you know, it was rushed, or… I'm sorry, I hope I don't do this all the time."

"Johnny was never meant to wake up," Walt declared. "But he did because sometimes… destiny has a bigger plan."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy asked in confusion. Walt blinked at her response – to think that the girl who was a Slayer knew nothing of destiny now.

"One of the things I learned from Johnny… and from the stories you've told, is that you have to sacrifice some things in your life to fight the good fight because the fight itself is bigger than you are. Believe it or not, it's more important than the things lost."

Buffy stared closely at him as she studied his words. Darkness filled her expression as if she began to see in her mind the shadows of her former life. "Were Johnny and I..." The words faded away as she nervously asked the question, "Was there a thing between us?"

Walt uncomfortably blushed a bit and then nodded. "Yeah, there was."

She looked down at the floor for a second as she tried to piece together her past, having much difficulty. "And the other guy… Angel?"

"I don't really know much about him," Walt shrugged and shook his head. "I imagine he's an okay guy."

She squeezed her eyes closed as she fought to remember and explain the positive and negative reactions inside of her. "I think," she said, half to herself, "I think I was in love with him, too."

Walt stared at her in silence as she descended deep into contemplation. With a buzz which hadn't been heard in a while, Walt's cell phone rang in the pocket of his jeans, causing him to stir and jump up immediately. He reached in and stared down at the name on the call. "I'll be right outside," he said as he flipped the cell phone open worriedly.

"Sarah," he declared with a hint of shock and excitement as he rushed out of the cabin and stepped out onto the porch outside, closing the door behind him. What followed was the barrage of complaints that he knew were inevitable.

"Walt! Where the _hell_ have you been? Why haven't you called? What's going on?"

"Sarah, Sarah, slow down," he answered, trying to save his sinking ship. "You don't understand; I've been trying to get a hold of you for hours…" Another wash of static flooded the airwaves as her voice crackled and was almost lost.

"What?" she replied. "It's hard to hear you; are you in a tunnel?"

"No, honey," he said louder. "I'm in a cabin north of Los Angeles."

"Did you say a cabin?" she exclaimed. "What are you doing in a cabin? I heard about that explosion at the hospital on TV and I've been worried sick and you're in a _cabin_? Where's Johnny and Bruce? Weren't they with you…?"

"Slow down," Walt declared. "I can explain." He took a deep breath and realized that was a whole lot harder than he imagined.

"Well, I'm waiting."

"Okay, maybe, I can't explain. Look, we're all safe… the explosion – we weren't in it. We're fine."

"Fine?" Sarah repeated.

"Yes, honey, we're…" Walt stared around the clearing of the woods as the got the feeling that he was somehow being watched through the trees. "How's J.J.?" he asked as he kept his eyes alertly on the trees around him.

"He's fine," Sarah sighed. "We're in the car right now on the way to school." She began to ramble on, nervousness and exhaustion in her voice, "I don't know what I'm going to do, Walt, I've been waiting for you to call and then I thought it was the phones at the house. I swear to god the second you're gone every single appliance we own just breaks at once. And then I've been trying to get a hold of Johnny because I know he just must be devastated…"

"Devastated?" Walt repeated with confusion.

"Of course!" Sarah exclaimed. "His fiancé just _died_, did she not?"

"Well…" his words faded away uncomfortably. "She's kind of, not dead." Sarah nearly slammed on her breaks as her jaw dropped wide open. Sure enough, another bewildered _WHAT?_ burst out of the phone. But before Walt could explain, another wash of static ripped through their conversation and disconnected their call. "Sa-Sarah?" Walt called as he glanced at his phone in frustration. "Damn, she's gonna be pissed."

* * *

Angel stepped across the fresh green grass of a side yard in a suburb. It was a path he had walked before and he had spent nights retracing every step. He emerged from beneath an elm tree as he gazed carefully around the corner of a lovely white house with maroon shutters. It wasn't a path he was used to taking in the daytime. Of course, there wasn't a path he was used to taking in the daytime.

He slowly approached a window looking into a small kitchen. Slowly, he moved towards it with his eyes intently staring through the pane inside. Angel watched carefully, moving slowly, as he saw Mr. Riley sitting at the kitchen table, reading over the morning paper.

Angel looked quickly to his side to see a small, Jack Russell Terrier bound up with a wagging tail and a panting tongue. Excited to greet Angel, the dog leapt up and licked him on the back of the hand. The second the dog's tongue reached his hand, Angel flashed back to a familiar vision.

"They'll destroy you!" Connor shouted over the sounds of the collapsing structure.

As quickly as it came, the vision was gone. Angel understood now the benefit of being psychic, because for a brief moment it felt as if he was there in front of his son again. Angel looked up from the dog and stared back into the window just as Connor, now almost two years older, emerged from another room.

He was no longer able to hear their talking from inside the kitchen, having lost his sensitive hearing ability with his vampiric nature. He watched Connor sit down at the table with his "adoptive" father, a deck of cards in his hands.

As Angel watched his son, he silently reconsidered all of the deeds and decisions he'd made in his past. He could stand there for the rest of the day thinking about these things, and all of the things he could have had in his life, as well as what he could have now that he was human. However, he only allowed himself a few more seconds of the satisfaction of knowing that your son is still alive after a horrific battle (and not being able to fully remember if you'd seen him since then).

Now that the deed was done, Angel turned around and walked away from the house, disappearing into the shadows of the trees.

Inside the house, Connor froze in place as his eyes drifted upwards off of the shuffled cards. He glanced around the kitchen as Mr. Riley stood up and exited for a moment, leaving Connor to himself. He looked around with an eerie feeling as he glanced out of the kitchen window to the side yard.

He could not see anyone, but inside he knew.

* * *

Inside the Watchers Council, a metal door quaked and slid open after being stuck in lockdown mode for hours. On the other side, Johnny, Dana, Oz and Bruce glanced and the burning hot doorway warily. "Nice work," Johnny commented to Dana as she placed her hands back in her pockets, having melted locking mechanisms on the door.

Inside the darkened castle, things were quieter than death, and just as unsettling. The lights overhead flickered on and off weakly and at a closer glance one could tell that things inside the building had been destroyed.

"I love what they've done with the place," Bruce declared as he gazed around cautiously.

Johnny stared closely around the area and stepped inside. "Please tell me the place is just being remodeled."

"They need to fire whoever's doing the remodeling," Bruce noted.

"No," Oz declared uncomfortably. "Something's wrong." He bounded down the hallway cautiously with the others in tow. They ran down a hallway into a central command post area to find most everything trashed.

"What the hell happened here?" Dana asked nervously.

"That's beginning to sound like our new motto," Johnny declared as he glanced around the area and his eyes froze towards the floor. He rushed over behind a desk with a destroyed computer on top of it to see the broken body of a woman on the ground.

Oz rushed over as Johnny lifted the woman's lifeless body and studied her blood-stained face. "I know her," Oz declared as he stared down at the red-haired woman. "Her name is Vi. She's the one that… tried to send me a message."

"Slayer?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah," Oz declared. "I've been… keeping an eye on this place."

Johnny respectfully lay the woman's body down on the floor and gazed around the area. "There are more bodies outside," Dana gasped as she stared out the doorway. "Oh my god…"

"They're all dead," Oz sighed. "Everyone here."

"They've been slaughtered," Bruce stated as he stared down at another dark-skinned woman with long braids not far away from Vi. "What could've done this?"

Oz stared at the walls surrounding them, studying the horrible burn marks scarring them. "Whatever it was, magic couldn't stop it." He swallowed hard as another fear filled his heart.

Johnny stepped out of the command room and gazed around the hallways. "There are more dead bodies in the other rooms."

"I know," Oz replied as he swallowed hard. "I can smell the blood."

"Do you think what did this is still here?" Dana asked fearfully.

"No," Johnny shook his head. "Whatever did this is long gone."

Bruce stared around at some of the undamaged computers, one of them still on. He glanced up in the corner of the room to see an undamaged surveillance camera peering down on them. "Is there any way to see what happened here?"

The four of them looked at each other as Oz moved towards one of the computers and browsed around until he found a program that loosely resembled what he was looking for. After several failed tries, he was able to bring up the surveillance footage.

"You're pretty good at that," Dana nodded.

"Thanks, after this I'll sign up for the Geek Squad." He began to rewind the past footage to the minute before the blackout. The video showed a mass of people running for their lives, terrified – thankfully without sound. For a brief second, there was a flash in the doorway, but the image was gone before it could be registered or recognized. The people in the command room were then seen being torn apart one by one by the unseen force.

"Ugh, stop it… can… can you rewind and play it back slower?" Johnny asked.

"Uh, sure, let me try," Oz replied. After some difficulty, he was able to rewind and slow down the frame rate. A blurry shadow could now be see wielding an axe-like weapon doing the damage as it popped from area to area, killing everyone in its path.

"Can you zoom in on the weapon?" Johnny asked.

"Okay, keep in mind," Oz complained. "I'm just pressing buttons here."

"And we're amazed with every push," Johnny answered. "Just try."

Oz sighed and went back to pressing until he was able to center-in on the weapon and enhance the image. "I think that's as good as it gets," Oz stated.

"That's good enough," Johnny replied with a darkened tone of dismay. Bruce, Dana and Oz stared at what Johnny was seeing.

"What?" Dana asked as they stared at an enhanced version of the weapon – the silver and red weapon which Johnny had seen in past visions: the Scythe of the Slayer.

"Buffy?" Johnny said with disbelief as he gazed at the shadowed figure holding the blood-stained weapon.

"What?" Bruce blurted. "No way, that's not—"

The image began to move again as the video slowly played as the figure moved left and right, taking out people mercilessly. The group stared closer with more trepidation and fear as the horrifying reality came to light.

"It _is_ her," Oz stated, bewildered. An angry tone set into his voice. "She did this."

"Why?" Dana declared. "And how? I mean, we were there."

"It doesn't make any sense," Johnny shook his head, feeling betrayed.

"She came back from the dead again," Oz stated. As he was talking, the image on the computer screen stopped as the shadowy image turned around and popped to the center of the room… a face staring up at the camera. It _was_ Buffy's face, with eyes blacked out with evil power. This shadowy Buffy-like figure gazed up at the camera, almost as if she could see the four of them standing in the room staring at the screen hours later.

There before them was the proof, and yet something seemed different. It was Buffy's image to the slightest detail, but there was something very wrong.

"It's not the real Buffy," Oz summarized what they were all thinking. "It's something else."

_Something evil_, they thought.

As the image continued to stare at them threateningly through the camera, they stepped back away from the computer. "Bruce, you need to get us home," Johnny ordered. "We need to go. Now."

* * *

Buffy lay on the couch in the cabin, nodding off to sleep as she stirred suddenly and sat straight up. She glanced around to see that Walt was still gone and she was by herself in the cabin, but she certainly did not feel alone. A green light began to glow from somewhere, lighting the whole cabin up in green. Buffy glanced down fearfully at the Armageddon Symbol on the floor as it shined brighter by the second.

"Oh, great," she breathed worriedly. Seconds before she was about to bolt out of the door away from the radiating symbol, a loud, ear-bursting shriek rang out as if it was coming from some distance nearby. Buffy screamed and clutched her ears as the shrill sound shook her bones and nearly burst her eardrum. Without even thinking, she sped off… but much faster than any human could run. It was almost as if she was flying out of the door to find the source of the sound. She was running faster than any human eye could catch – faster than the sound itself.

Sure enough, not far from the cabin in the woods, Buffy found the source of the sound. The screaming, shrieking howl was coming from deep within an old stone well – the same that Malcolm Janus had activated for her to find. With the sound still crashing inside her skull, she stumbled forward and grasped the edge of the well. Suddenly, more green energy erupted from inside the well in a beam of light, consuming her within.

* * *

Tiredly, Walt rushed back into the cabin after several failed minutes of searching for Buffy after he heard the explosion. He rushed over for the wall and found an old landline telephone with almost frayed wires sticking into a telephone jack in the wall. He grabbed the phone and heard a weak dial tone.

After dialing several numbers, he finally got a hold of Robin Wood. Of course, they could barely hear each other over all the distortion on the line. "Robin, it's Walt, I'm back at the cabin. I can't find Buffy."

"I know," he declared, "I just got word from Giles that Buffy's been compromised."

"What? How?"

"You need to tell Johnny that Buffy is a threat, do you understand?"

Walt rolled his eyes with frustration. "He's not here!"

"What?!"

"He and the others went to Scotland to see the Watchers Council. I've been here with Buffy alone."

Several seconds of static and silence went by as Robin declared with a deathly-serious tone. "Look, my team is already en route. You've got to get the hell out of there. Do you copy? Just run!"

Without another word, Walt hung up the phone, rushed out of the door, and began a three-mile run down the road towards the nearest gas station.

* * *

Sarah continued the curvy drive through the hills past walls of spruce and pine. She glanced over at J.J. who fiddled with his PSP in silence. "When's Dad coming back?" J.J. asked.

"Honey, I don't know," she sighed worriedly, bags forming beneath her eyes as they had steadily since Walt lost his job.

"What's Johnny doing?"

"Sweetie, look, I really don't know anything right now. Just… no questions."

"Gosh," the ten-year-old boy sighed, rolling his eyes. "I was just asking."

"I know," Sarah softened her tone as she glanced over at him, "and I don't mean to snap, it's just—"  
"Mom, watch out!" J.J. shouted as Sarah whipped her head towards the road to see a young woman rush out in front of her car. She slammed on the brakes as the car screeched to a stop just a few feet away from the strange, wild-eyed woman.

"Oh, my god…" Sarah breathed. "J.J., stay here." Sarah opened the driver's side door after unbuckling her seat belt. She hopped out of the car and rushed up to the terrified, blonde teenage girl. "Are you all right?"

"We need to run!" Dawn exclaimed. "It's coming!" The teenage woman ran up to the car, unsettling Sarah and J.J. Sarah looked the woman over to see that she was covered in cuts and what looked like small burns.

"We gotta go," Dawn ordered.

"What… what happened…?" Sarah's words fell away as she looked over to the left side of the road up the hill and noticed the bright fire burning through the trees and the enormous column of smoke coming from beyond the ridgeline. A few seconds later she realized that it was a passenger plane that was blazing at the top of the hill. "Oh, my god…"

"Get in the car," Dawn ordered as she shoved Sarah back into the driver's seat. Dawn hopped into the back seat. "It's still coming! Go!"

J.J. looked over across the road towards the trees as he heard the sounds of snapping and crumbling branches. He observed that not only were branches disappearing, but entire trees were being pushed aside like a scene from a monster movie. He braced himself as fear came over him. "Mom!" he shouted as he stared out of the window with wide eyes.

Sarah tried to put the car back in drive, but it something was wrong. She turned the engine back over to no avail. "The car won't start!" Sarah exclaimed. J.J. glanced down at the dashboard and then suddenly pulled his hands off of it, an unsettled expression across his face.

"There's no time," Dawn breathed as she heard it coming closer. She pulled the second orb from her pocket and grabbed Sarah and J.J.'s shoulders.

* * *

Dana and Oz rushed across the front yard of the cabin towards the barn. "We must have gotten separated somehow," Oz declared. "Are you sure no one's in the cabin?"

"It's empty," Dana declared. They headed towards the barn with the hope of finding Walt or the rest of their group. Suddenly from the side, Robin's team, led by Renee rushed up to them.

"Where's Buffy?" Renee asked.

"We don't know…" Dana declared.

"Get the barn door open," Renee ordered as two of her team pulled the doors apart. Oz and Dana stood back and glanced around, seeing no one as the team spilled inside with rifles drawn.

"Dead end," Oz sighed.

Dana began, "I think we need to—" They both heard a crash from the other end of the barn as a flash of light shined out. Before anyone could register what was happening, Dana gasped and reached for her throat, blood spilling out through her fingers. Oz looked over to see a circular saw sticking out of her throat, stealing the life from her eyes. They watched as she fell lifelessly to the floor in shock.

Within seconds more rusty tools began flying through the air as the five members of Robin's team opened fire on the unseen force. At least two shears flew through the air and fatally stabbed two of the team members. A simple lumber axe cut down another team member as Oz's eyes darted from corner to corner, trying to find the culprit. From the side, Oz spotted one of the team being struck from behind and decapitated by something which appeared to be a garden hoe.

"Oz, get out of here!" Renee screamed as suddenly, she, too was killed. Oz rushed for the door, but he already knew it was too late. He glanced back to see Buffy standing at the back of the barn, her eyes black with evil.

As Oz turned back towards the door, Buffy was standing in the doorway staring at him with a twisted pale smile, looking more dead than alive and more demon than human. He froze with fear as he gazed at the demon, and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He stared down to see a slick black knife fashioned from the Ununoctinite stone sticking out of his heart.

An explosion of light erupted from the mortal wound in his chest.


End file.
